"My eye plainly discovered a ship lying at an anchor" — illustration for Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" (1891)

My eye plainly discovered a ship lying at an anchor (See p. 179), signed "Wal Paget" lower left. The centrally positioned illustration features Crusoe's arms raised in a gesture of greeting and relief, for after twenty-eight years, a European ship has dropped anchor off his island, the vegetation of which dwarfs both Crusoe and the ship. Since the moment realised is two pages further on, the proleptic reading heightens the suspense. One-half of page 177, vignetted: 9 cm high by 12.5 cm wide. Running head: "We Prepare for Escape" (page 177).

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: Crusoe confronts the possibility of Rescue

It was no less than eight days I had waited for them, when a strange and unforeseen accident intervened, of which the like has not, perhaps, been heard of in history. I was fast asleep in my hutch one morning, when my man Friday came running in to me, and called aloud, “Master, master, they are come, they are come!” I jumped up, and regardless of danger I went, as soon as I could get my clothes on, through my little grove, which, by the way, was by this time grown to be a very thick wood; I say, regardless of danger I went without my arms, which was not my custom to do; but I was surprised when, turning my eyes to the sea, I presently saw a boat at about a league and a half distance, standing in for the shore, with a shoulder-of-mutton sail, as they call it, and the wind blowing pretty fair to bring them in: also I observed, presently, that they did not come from that side which the shore lay on, but from the southernmost end of the island. Upon this I called Friday in, and bade him lie close, for these were not the people we looked for, and that we might not know yet whether they were friends or enemies. In the next place I went in to fetch my perspective glass to see what I could make of them; and having taken the ladder out, I climbed up to the top of the hill, as I used to do when I was apprehensive of anything, and to take my view the plainer without being discovered. I had scarce set my foot upon the hill when my eye plainly discovered a ship lying at anchor, at about two leagues and a half distance from me, SSE., but not above a league and a half from the shore. By my observation it appeared plainly to be an English ship, and the boat appeared to be an English long-boat. [Chapter XVII, "Visit of the Mutineers," page 179]

Commentary

The sequence involving the mutiny on board the English vessel and Crusoe's coming to the rescue of the Captain involves six illustrations — more than Cruikshank's single illustration, but on a par with the six illustrations devoted to this incident in the 1863-64 Cassell edition. Paget's use of vignetted lithographs involves more realism and less theatricality, but rises to a crescendo with the full-page illustration of the Captain shooting the leader of the mutineers in "Shot the new captain through the head." Crusoe has been praying for rescue and for the appearance of Europeans on his island, but the mutineers constitute an unexpected turn of events to which Crusoe must respond if he is to get back to Europe.

The sequence involving the mutiny on board the English vessel and Crusoe's coming to the assistance of the Captain involves six illustrations — more than Cruikshank's single illustration, but on a par with the six illustrations devoted to this incident in the 1863-64 Cassell edition. Paget's use of vignetted lithographs involves more realism and less theatricality, but rises to a crescendo with the full-page illustration of the first mate's shooting the leader of the mutineers in "Shot the new captain through the head." The mutiny sequence of both the 1863-64 and 1891 editions is transitional in that it marks Crusoe's return to European society as a man of experience, substance, and authority.

The Suppression of the Mutiny in Pictures

Related Material

Reference

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 4 May 2018