"He came to me with one of the missionary priests" — illustration for Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" (1891)

"He came to me with one of the missionary priests." (See p. 376), unsigned. Having arrived at the Chinese port of Quinchang without being apprehended for piracy by the Dutch authorities, Crusoe and his business partner find a Japanese merchant eager to buy their cargo of opium, and prepared to consider buying the ship that has caused the partners so much trouble. One-half of page 380, centre, vignetted: 10 cm high by 12 cm wide. Running head: "On the Way to Pekin" (page 381).

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 strikes a bargain with a Japanese merchant

Providence, I say, began here to clear up our way a little; and the first thing that offered was, that our old Portuguese pilot brought a Japan merchant to us, who inquired what goods we had: and, in the first place, he bought all our opium, and gave us a very good price for it, paying us in gold by weight, some in small pieces of their own coin, and some in small wedges, of about ten or twelves ounces each. While we were dealing with him for our opium, it came into my head that he might perhaps deal for the ship too, and I ordered the interpreter to propose it to him. He shrunk up his shoulders at it when it was first proposed to him; but in a few days after he came to me, with one of the missionary priests for his interpreter, and told me he had a proposal to make to me, which was this: he had bought a great quantity of our goods, when he had no thoughts of proposals made to him of buying the ship; and that, therefore, he had not money to pay for the ship: but if I would let the same men who were in the ship navigate her, he would hire the ship to go to Japan; and would send them from thence to the Philippine Islands with another loading, which he would pay the freight of before they went from Japan: and that at their return he would buy the ship. I began to listen to his proposal, and so eager did my head still run upon rambling, that I could not but begin to entertain a notion of going myself with him, and so to set sail from the Philippine Islands away to the South Seas; accordingly, I asked the Japanese merchant if he would not hire us to the Philippine Islands and discharge us there. He said No, he could not do that, for then he could not have the return of his cargo; but he would discharge us in Japan, at the ship’s return. [Chapter XIII, "Arrival in China," pp. 375-76]

Commentary

Since Defoe does not, in fact, describe precisely where the trio meet and under what circumstances, the earlier Cassell illustrator, P. W. Justyne, had had a free hand to describe a magnificent building with an ornate wall, stately entrance-way, spacious courtyard, and fishpond. Wal Paget, on the other hand, does not engage in this lavish scene-painting, but focusses instead on the trio of figures making the business deal: the Japanese merchant, right, scrupulously realised in silk gown and shaved head, the Roman Catholic priest who serves as the interpreter, and Crusoe in his now familiar garb (left). The Japanese merchant does not regard Crusoe directly, so that his demurring at Crusoe's proposal regarding the sale of the ship may be a feint.

The facetious satire of the Japanese imperial court notwithstanding, W. S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan's 1885 operetta The Mikado underscores the growing European awareness of the rise of Imperial Japan from 1870 onward as a significant military and economic power in the Far East. Although China and Japan are physically separated by just a narrow body of water, the gulf between the two Asian giants was vast in 1890 as China was, despite its massive size, backward and ill-governed, whereas Japan had rapidly transformed itself into a modern nation state after the American Admiral Perry had compelled the country to open its ports to international trade in 1857. Whereas China through the First and Second Opium Wars had proved incapable of defending itself against the Western powers, Japan had developed a highly efficient army and navy, exerting considerable influence over its neighbours, particularly Korea. The traditionally dressed "Japan merchant" in Paget's illustration may resemble the quaint stage character who sings "A Wandering Minstrel I" in the 1885 operetta, to British readers in 1891 he would also have represented the past that Japan had left behind to become "The Britain of the East" which would shortly assert control over former Chinese territories in the First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894–17 April 1895).

Related Material

Parallel Illustration by Cassell house artist P. W. Justyne (1864)

Above: P. W. Justyne's elegant realisation of the merchant's house at the port, Crusoe introduced to a Chinese Merchant (1864). [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.

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 14 April 2018