"Crusoe arrives at Madagascar" for Daniel Defoe's "Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" (1863-64)

Crusoe arrives at Madagascar (page 317) — the volume's eighty-third composite wood-block engraving for Defoe's The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner. Related by himself (London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1863-64). Part II, The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Chapter IX, "Dreadful Occurrences in Madagascar." Full-page, framed: 14 cm high x 21.7 cm wide. Running head: "The Island of Madagascar" (p. 319).

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's vessel arrives at Madagascar

I shall not pester the reader with a tedious description of places, journals of our voyage, variations of the compass, latitudes, trade-winds, &c.; it is enough to name the ports and places which we touched at, and what occurred to us upon our passages from one to another. We touched first at the island of Madagascar, where, though the people are fierce and treacherous, and very well armed with lances and bows, which they use with inconceivable dexterity, yet we fared very well with them a while. They treated us very civilly; and for some trifles which we gave them, such as knives, scissors, &c., they brought us eleven good fat bullocks, of a middling size, which we took in, partly for fresh provisions for our present spending, and the rest to salt for the ship’s use.

We were obliged to stay here some time after we had furnished ourselves with provisions; and I, who was always too curious to look into every nook of the world wherever I came, went on shore as often as I could. [Chapter IX, "Dreadful Occurrences at Madagascar," pp. 315-316]

Commentary

None of the previous illustrators have represented the lushness of the East African island, but a number have realised the "Dreadful Occurrences" of which Crusoe speaks as the narrative becomes both a travelogue and an exposition of exotic locales and foreign peoples shortly to be colonised by Europeans. The narrative-pictorial sequence offers a great many images of exotic foreign locales, images that emphasize the grandeur of the geographical setting and the markedly un-European nature of the architecture — but, quite often, the illustrators minimize the human figures, leaving the reader to place the action within the physical backdrop that the illustrations provide. In his 1831 narrative-pictorial sequence, George Cruikshank realizes the uneven battle between Crusoe's well-armed crew and the natives of the island in Crusoe attempting to halt the slaughter of villagers on Madagascar, which depicts the old imperialist as a humanitarian, aghast at the bloodshed his men are wreaking on a civilian population, a very different emphasis from Thomas Stothard's 1790 illustration of the Europeans' exacting vengeance in Robinson Crusoe's seamen vowing revenge for the death of their commander.

The artist responsible, Thomas Macquoid, seems to have specialised in illustrations depicting the lush vegetation of Crusoe's island, and of foreign settings such as Madagascar — in particular, Macquoid seems to have enjoyed drawing palm trees and banana leaves:

Complicating the issue of Macquoid's contributions to the 1863-64 project even further, Macquoid may well have designed many of the ornamental frames of other illustrators' plates since "TM" often appears within the borders.

Related Material

Parallel Illustration by George Cruikshank (1831) and Wal Paget (1891)

Above: Cruikshank's vignette of the destruction of a native village, Crusoe attempting to halt the slaughter of villagers on Madagascar (1831). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Above: Paget's lithograph places the Europeans, subjects of an apparently unprovoked attack, in the foreground: We gave them a volley (1891). [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 8 April 2018