"They begged for Mercy" — illustration for Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" (1891)

They begged for mercy" (See p. 184), signed "Wal Paget" lower right. The centrally positioned illustration foregrounds the spokesman for mutineers on shore; two mutineers already lie dead in the background. One-half of page 184, vignetted: 8 cm high by 12 cm wide. Running head: "I Show the Captain my Castle" (page 185).

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The Passage Illustrated: Crusoe Takes Charge

In the middle of this discourse we heard some of them awake, and soon after we saw two of them on their feet. I asked him if either of them were the heads of the mutiny? He said, “No.” “Well, then,” said I, “you may let them escape; and Providence seems to have awakened them on purpose to save themselves. Now,” says I, “if the rest escape you, it is your fault.” Animated with this, he took the musket I had given him in his hand, and a pistol in his belt, and his two comrades with him, with each a piece in his hand; the two men who were with him going first made some noise, at which one of the seamen who was awake turned about, and seeing them coming, cried out to the rest; but was too late then, for the moment he cried out they fired—I mean the two men, the captain wisely reserving his own piece. They had so well aimed their shot at the men they knew, that one of them was killed on the spot, and the other very much wounded; but not being dead, he started up on his feet, and called eagerly for help to the other; but the captain stepping to him, told him it was too late to cry for help, he should call upon God to forgive his villainy, and with that word knocked him down with the stock of his musket, so that he never spoke more; there were three more in the company, and one of them was slightly wounded. By this time I was come; and when they saw their danger, and that it was in vain to resist, they begged for mercy. The captain told them he would spare their lives if they would give him an assurance of their abhorrence of the treachery they had been guilty of, and would swear to be faithful to him in recovering the ship, and afterwards in carrying her back to Jamaica, from whence they came. They gave him all the protestations of their sincerity that could be desired; and he was willing to believe them, and spare their lives, which I was not against, only that I obliged him to keep them bound hand and foot while they were on the island. [Chapter XVII, "Visit of Mutineers," page 182]

Commentary: After Twenty-Eight Years on the Island

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 shooting the leader of the mutineers in "Shot the new captain through the head." But over the course of these six illustrations Crusoe's appearance changes, from that of the island castaway in goatskins to the sartorially impressive governor of the island.

In the sequence of six illustrations involving Crusoe's role in quelling the mutiny aboard the British ship, in the first two, My eye plainly discovered a ship lying at anchor and "What are ye, gentlemen?", the middle-aged castaway is plainly wearing partial or full "island dress" (that is, goatskin breeches, jacket, and cap), so that one may readily distinguish him from the victims of the mutiny. In neither of these illustrations does Paget include Friday. In the third in the sequence, They begged for mercy, neither Crusoe nor Friday appears within the frame; rather, the three armed men in the rear of the picture are the captain and his two loyal subordinates — Crusoe has apparently been watching the action from a distance, and only arrives after the captain's men have shot two of the mutineers: "By this time I was come" (184). However, only once Crusoe has arrived, presumably with Friday, do the three remaining mutineers capitulate and beg for mercy. Consequently, the picture is a distortion of the scene as Defoe presents it in that Crusoe should be among the figures at the back of the illustration since he sees the scene from the perspective of the captain and his supporters rather than, as in Paget's illustration, from behind the mutineers. In the fourth and fifth illustrations in the sequence Crusoe is not represented, so that, when he appears in the sixth illustration, I showed them the new captain hanging at the yard-arm of the ship, he is identifiable only by his gesturing towards the ship. Her is, in fact, an entirely different Crusoe, re-made in the fashion of the late seventeenth century, in a long leather surcoat, feathered hat, stockings, and buckled shoes. This, then, is the Crusoe who leaves the island for Europe and who will reappear as a prosperous Bedfordshire farmer in Part Two. Friday does not appear in "island garb" again; rather, having disappeared in the mutiny sequence, he reappears as the daredevil out on a limb with a European black bear in Gascony in "What, you no come farther?"

The Suppression of the Mutiny in Pictures

Related Material

Relevant illustrations from other nineteenth-century editions, 1818-1860s

Left: In the 1818 children's book illustration, the Captain offers Crusoe his ship without any reference to quelling the mutiny first, The Captain offers a Ship to Robinson Crusoe. Right: In the 1820 children's book Crusoe and Friday startle the Captain and his officers in The poor man, with a gush of tears, answered, "Am I talking to a man or an angel?" [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Above: George Cruikshank's 1831 realisation of Crusoe and Friday's meeting the captain of the ship seized by mutineers, Crusoe and Friday encounter the captain of a British ship whose crew have mutinied (1831).

Above: In the highly illustrated Cassell's edition, Crusoe and Friday encounter the three victims of the mutineers from the English ship, stranded on the shore: Crusoe discovers Himself to the English Captain (1863-64).

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 5 May 2018