"They were surprised with seeing a light." — illustration for Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" (1891)

They were surprised with seeing a light (See p. 253), signed by Wal Paget, bottom left. Paget has not depicted any of the natives, but has represented their numbers by the glow of their ceremonial fires in the undergrowth. One-half of page 256, vignetted: 12.2 cm high by 12.6 cm wide. Running head: "Fight between the Savages" (page 255).

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.]

The Passage Illustrated: The Settlers see the Cannibals' Bonfires

They went out presently to go up to the top of the hill, where I used to go; but they being strong, and a good company, nor alone, as I was, used none of my cautions to go up by the ladder, and pulling it up after them, to go up a second stage to the top, but were going round through the grove unwarily, when they were surprised with seeing a light as of fire, a very little way from them, and hearing the voices of men, not of one or two, but of a great number.

Among the precautions I used to take on the savages landing on the island, it was my constant care to prevent them making the least discovery of there being any inhabitant upon the place: and when by any occasion they came to know it, they felt it so effectually that they that got away were scarce able to give any account of it; for we disappeared as soon as possible, nor did ever any that had seen me escape to tell any one else, except it was the three savages in our last encounter who jumped into the boat; of whom, I mentioned, I was afraid they should go home and bring more help. Whether it was the consequence of the escape of those men that so great a number came now together, or whether they came ignorantly, and by accident, on their usual bloody errand, the Spaniards could not understand; but whatever it was, it was their business either to have concealed themselves or not to have seen them at all, much less to have let the savages have seen there were any inhabitants in the place; or to have fallen upon them so effectually as not a man of them should have escaped, which could only have been by getting in between them and their boats; but this presence of mind was wanting to them, which was the ruin of their tranquillity for a great while. [Chapter III, "Fight with the Cannibals," page 253]

Commentary: The Unseen Visitors

Although the visiting cannibals are conducting a feast on the other side of the woods, the illustrator does not depict the Carib Indians from the mainland. Likely, Paget wishes the reader to construct from imagination and previous chapters precisely what the visitors are doing, especially since the reader has already experienced the textual passage illustrated three pages earlier. Paget does, however, provide an image of six canoes of the twenty returning to the island at a later time.

The return ofthe cannibals to Crusoe's island had been a constant source of anxiety to goatskin-cladcastaway in Part One, but the Spanish and English colonists have grown complacent, and have not observed Crusoe's precautions, particularly about showing a light afterdark. The return of the cannibals, even for a brief feast, therefore upsets the tranquility of the European colony after two years of near-amity between the former mutineers and theothers. The light seen through the forest and the arrival of the canoes serve to heightenthe suspense generated by the text, and will culminate in a furious battle in which theEuropeans, led by "Seignior" Will Atkins, will triumph as a result of their superior technology, despite being massively outnumbered. The intensity of the glow through the woods here suggests that the numbers gathered around the fires must be significant.

Related Material

Reference

Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Exciting Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner, as Related by Himself. With 120 original illustrations by Walter Paget. London, Paris,and Melbourne: Cassell, 1891.

Last modified 29 March 2018