"Crusoe entering a Chinese Port" for Daniel Defoe's "Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" (1863-64)

Crusoe entering a Chinese Port (page 348) — the volume's ninetieth composite wood-block engraving for Defoe's The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner. Related by himself (London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1863-64). Part II, The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Chapter XIII, "Arrival in China." Full-page, framed with a nautical rope border: 14 cm high x 21.9 cm wide. Running head: "Fearful Apprehensions" (p. 349).

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: Crusoe arrives in the Exotic East

When we came on shore, the old pilot, who was now our friend, got us a lodging, together with a warehouse for our goods; it was a little hut, with a larger house adjoining to it, built and also palisadoed round with canes, to keep out pilferers, of which there were not a few in that country: however, the magistrates allowed us a little guard, and we had a soldier with a kind of half-pike, who stood sentinel at our door, to whom we allowed a pint of rice and a piece of money about the value of three-pence per day, so that our goods were kept very safe.

The fair or mart usually kept at this place had been over some time; however, we found that there were three or four junks in the river, and two ships from Japan, with goods which they had bought in China, and were not gone away, having some Japanese merchants on shore. [Chapter XIII, "Arrival in China," page 350]

Commentary

The adventure story now becomes something of a personal travelogue as Crusoe visits the Far East, landing (after much trepidation at being apprehended by Dutch authorities, or attacked by a much larger Dutch ship) at the small port of Quinchang on the Gulf of Nankin. The junks, sampans, and pagoda (centre) which the Cassell's artists depict establish the wealth and unEuropean nature of the society, but (aside from the fisherman in the right foreground here) the reader encounters few figures in closeup or in larger scale in these Chinese illustrations, until the arrival of the Tartar cavalry. As it is the only ship of European character in the harbour, we may assume that Crusoe's vessel is the one that has docked near the great wall, right rear. The illustrations' borders, heretofore ornate and based on plants and shells, now become simple bamboo frames, some with and others without leaves.

The illustrators for this section, William Leighton Leitch (1804-83) and Percy William Justyne (1812-83), were both watercolour landscape painters, but Leitch also had a considerable career as an illustrator for the Illustrated London News (1849 and 1850), the London Graphic, the London Journal, the National Magazine, the Floral World, and the Building News. He illustrated the Art Journal catalogues of the International Exhibitions in 1851 and 1862. The two between them had the inclination and ability to do the kinds of exotic landscapes and buildings required in this portion of Crusoe's adventures.

Related Material

Relevant Illustration by Wal Paget (1891)

Above: Paget in his sequence of illustrations for China and Tartary emphasizes people over buildings and landscape: Brought abundance of things to sell (1891). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

References

Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner. Related by himself. With upwards of One Hundred Illustrations. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1863-64.

Last modified 12 April 2018