"A light of some fire upon the shore." — illustration for Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" (1891)

A light of some fire upon the shore (p. 130) depicts Crusoe in partial "island" garb of goatskins glancing down and to the right at the natives' fire down toward the beach: they are getting uncomfortably close. Middle of page 132, vignetted: 7.5 cm high by 12.7 cm wide, signed "Wal Paget" in the lower right-hand quadrant. Running head: "Sounds of a Ship in Distress" (p. 133).

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 Cannibals Return at Dawn

It was now the month of December, as I said above, in my twenty-third year; and this, being the southern solstice (for winter I cannot call it), was the particular time of my harvest, and required me to be pretty much abroad in the fields, when, going out early in the morning, even before it was thorough daylight, I was surprised with seeing a light of some fire upon the shore, at a distance from me of about two miles, toward that part of the island where I had observed some savages had been, as before, and not on the other side; but, to my great affliction, it was on my side of the island.[Chapter XIII, "The Wreck of a Spanish Ship," page 130]

Commentary: Crusoe taken unawares despite his vigilance

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. But now Crusoe is behind a screen of trees in his fortress at dawn, and a fire of some sort is burning not far away away. Thus, Paget suggests that, for all his vigilance, nine "naked savages" (131) have arrived undetected from the mainland in two canoes, and are now sitting around a fire. In his imagination he constructs their preparation of "some of their barbarous diet of human flesh" (131), although his "perspective-glass" does not reveal any such detail. Paget has chosen to revisit one of the Cassell's illustrations, Crusoe in his fortress, rather than realise the subsequent text, in which Crusoe describes himself as lying "down flat on my belly on the ground" (131) with telescope after his initial discovery of the bonfire. Perhaps Paget regards the fortress as an externalization of of Crusoe's defensive "posture," which includes (hyperbolically) loaded "cannon" (130) with which he will defend himself "to the last gasp" (130). If the realistic picture has a short-coming, it is Paget's failure to communicate Crusoe's obsessive mental state — he looks far too placid as he studies the fire.

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 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