"To see if I could observe any boats." — illustration for Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" (1891)

To see if I could observe any boats (p. 122) depicts Crusoe in partial "island" garb of goatskins scanning the horizon with his telescope, on the lookout for native boats that would portend another horrible feast. Middle of page 124, vignetted: 9 cm high by 12 cm wide, signed "Wal Paget" in the lower left-hand quadrant. Running head: "I Remove my Boat" (p. 125).

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: The Aftermath of Crusoe's Discovery of the Cannibals' Feast

After I had thus laid the scheme of my design, and in my imagination put it in practice, I continually made my tour every morning to the top of the hill, which was from my castle, as I called it, about three miles or more, to see if I could observe any boats upon the sea, coming near the island, or standing over towards it; but I began to tire of this hard duty, after I had for two or three months constantly kept my watch, but came always back without any discovery; there having not, in all that time, been the least appearance, not only on or near the shore, but on the whole ocean, so far as my eye or glass could reach every way.

As long as I kept my daily tour to the hill, to look out, so long also I kept up the vigour of my design, and my spirits seemed to be all the while in a suitable frame for so outrageous an execution as the killing twenty or thirty naked savages, for an offence which I had not at all entered into any discussion of in my thoughts, any farther than my passions were at first fired by the horror I conceived at the unnatural custom of the people of that country, who, it seems, had been suffered by Providence, in His wise disposition of the world, to have no other guide than that of their own abominable and vitiated passions; and consequently were left, and perhaps had been so for some ages, to act such horrid things, and receive such dreadful customs, as nothing but nature, entirely abandoned by Heaven, and actuated by some hellish degeneracy, could have run them into. [Chapter XII, "A Cave Retreat," page 122 — Running head: "Ought I to Kill the Savages"]

Commentary: Crusoe on the Lookout

Crusoe's heightened vigilance after the discovery of the footprint on the beachhas been the theme of the previous narrative-pictorial sequencepublished, by Cassell illustratorsin 1863-64, notably Crusoe on the Lookout on the Hill by Thomas Macquoid and Crusoe in his Fort by Matt Somerville Morgan. These woodblock engravings, like the present Paget lithograph, situate Crusoe's apprehensions in the context of a still unoccupied island. Now that the European castaway has found evidence that cannibals periodically visit the island to practice their grisly rites, he has entered a state of constant vigilance in which looking seaward continually disrupts his regular routines. The island (as represented by the vegetation, right) remains beautiful and exotic, but Crusoe is now continually looking beyond the jungle with his telescope and towards the sea. Having yearned for human contact for a dozen years, he now has to maintain a constant vigilance lest he be taken by surprise. Against the superior numbers of the aboriginal invaders Crusoe can rely only upon advance warning (afforded by European technology in the form of a telescope) and his superior weaponry — and perhaps the element of surprise if he can keep his presence on the island shrouded from their notice. Paget places nothing on the horizon but white cumulus clouds, as if implying that the meance is entirely psychological and that the cannibals will come and go without disturbing Crusoe.

Related Material

Parallel Illustrations from the 1863-64 Edition

Left: Thomas Macquoid's engraving contrasts the apprehensive Crusoe and the still beautiful, unmarried landscape: Crusoe on the Lookout on the Hill (1863). Right: Matt Somerville Morgan's Crusoe in his Fort. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

References

Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Of York, Mariner. As Related by Himself. With upwards of One Hundred and Twenty Original Illustrations by Walter Paget. London, Paris, and Melbourne: Cassell, 1891.

Last modified 2 May 2018