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Sailing through the Strait of Malacca
Engravers: Butterworth and Heath
Illustrators: Justyne, Leitch, Macquoid, Morgan, Pasquier, and G. H. Thomas
1864
Wood-engraving
15.6 cm high by 14 cm wide, framed.
Cassell's Robinson Crusoe, page 333.
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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We picked up some more English sailors here after this, and some Dutch, and now we resolved on a second voyage to the south-east for cloves, &c. —that is to say, among the Philippine and Malacca isles. In short, not to fill up this part of my story with trifles when what is to come is so remarkable, I spent, from first to last, six years in this country, trading from port to port, backward and forward, and with very good success, and was now the last year with my new partner, going in the ship above mentioned, on a voyage to China, but designing first to go to Siam to buy rice.
In this voyage, being by contrary winds obliged to beat up and down a great while in the Straits of Malacca and among the islands, we were no sooner got clear of those difficult seas than we found our ship had sprung a leak, but could not discover where it was. [Chapter XI, "Warned of Danger by a Countryman," page 334]
The story now continues after Crusoe's being marooned on the shores of the Bay of Bengal in retribution for his attempting to order the men to refrain from massacring the villagers on Madagascar. The sailors felt justified in their conduct because the natives had captured and tortured their leader, Tom Jeffrys, but Crusoe realizes that the Europeans provoked the attack when Jeffry raped a native woman. Ironically, then, the crew avenge the apprehension and torture of their comrade despite the fact that he had broken the truce and violated a young woman, thereby threatening the safety of both ship and crew. In other words, they attempt to annihilate the village for exacting their own form of justice on Jeffry.
Although ejected from the ship, Crusoe is hardly abandoned on an inhospitable shore. Rather, he has both a servant and a companion, and finds lodgings in an English boarding-house, where he compacts with an English merchant to form a joint company and provide it with a thousand pounds in capital. The pair hire a ship and a European crew, and set sail for Achin, Siam, Sumatra, and Suskan, trading in opium. Returning to Bengal, they re-provision and set out for the Spice Islands. Upon their return, the pair purchase a ship, hire a mixed Dutch and English crew, and make for the Philippines, Siam, and China, again for spices. As the ship passes the Malacca Strait, Crusoe notes that this part of his life has occupied some six years, so that he is now sixty-seven.
Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Of York, Mariner. As Related by himself. With upwards of One Hundred Illustrations. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1863-64.
Last modified 9 April 2018