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The City of Nankin
Engravers: Butterworth and Heath
Illustrators: Justyne, Leitch, Macquoid, Morgan, Pasquier, and G. H. Thomas
1864
Wood-engraving
15 cm high by 14 cm wide, framed.
Cassell's Robinson Crusoe, page 341.
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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We were now on shore in China; if I thought myself banished, and remote from my own country at Bengal, where I had many ways to get home for my money, what could I think of myself now, when I was about a thousand leagues farther off from home, and destitute of all manner of prospect of return? All we had for it was this: that in about four months’ time there was to be another fair at the place where we were, and then we might be able to purchase various manufactures of the country, and withal might possibly find some Chinese junks from Tonquin for sail, that would carry us and our goods whither we pleased. This I liked very well, and resolved to wait; besides, as our particular persons were not obnoxious, so if any English or Dutch ships came thither, perhaps we might have an opportunity to load our goods, and get passage to some other place in India nearer home. Upon these hopes we resolved to continue here; but, to divert ourselves, we took two or three journeys into the country. First, we went ten days’ journey to Nankin, a city well worth seeing; they say it has a million of people in it: it is regularly built, and the streets are all straight, and cross one another in direct lines, which gives the figure of it great advantage. [Chapter XIII, "Arrival in China," page 355]
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. Although the picture is entitled "The City of Nankin," the illustrator has placed the walled city (again, characterized by a tall pagoda) well into the distance, suggesting the oriental setting through the small-scale figures in the foreground, the large, spiky-leafed plant (centre), and the quaint bridges across the river.
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 13 April 2018