"Killed the second with his pistol" — illustration for Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" (1891)

"Killed the second with his pistol." (See p. 387), signed "Wal Paget" (lower right). Crossing through Chinese Tartary, Crusoe's party are set upon by marauding Tartars. However, armed only with bows and spears the nomadic horsemen prove no match for European firearms. One-half of page 389, centre, vignetted: 8 cm high by 12 cm wide. Running head: "An Encounter with Tartars" (page 387).

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: A bold Scot in Crusoe's party tackles three Tartars

Immediately we halted, and though it was at a great distance, we fired, and sent them leaden bullets for wooden arrows, following our shot full gallop, to fall in among them sword in hand — for so our bold Scot that led us directed. He was, indeed, but a merchant, but he behaved with such vigour and bravery on this occasion, and yet with such cool courage too, that I never saw any man in action fitter for command. As soon as we came up to them we fired our pistols in their faces and then drew; but they fled in the greatest confusion imaginable. The only stand any of them made was on our right, where three of them stood, and, by signs, called the rest to come back to them, having a kind of scimitar in their hands, and their bows hanging to their backs. Our brave commander, without asking anybody to follow him, gallops up close to them, and with his fusee knocks one of them off his horse, killed the second with his pistol, and the third ran away. Thus ended our fight; but we had this misfortune attending it, that all our mutton we had in chase got away. We had not a man killed or hurt; as for the Tartars, there were about five of them killed — how many were wounded we knew not; but this we knew, that the other party were so frightened with the noise of our guns that they fled, and never made any attempt upon us. [Chapter XIV, "Attacked by Tartars," page 387]

Commentary: tHe Brave Scot from Crusoe's Party rout the remaining Tartars

Almost a constant in the various nineteenth-century programs of illustration for Defoe's eighteenth-century novel are the various artists' interpretations of the fierce and formidable Tartars. Ironically, in Defoe's novel when the nomadic horsemen encounter a much smaller but much better armed body of Europeans and Chinese the Tartars turn and flee at the first whiff of gunpowder. Whereas Thomas Stothard (1790, 1820)shows the Tartars shadowing the merchants' column and Cruikshank depicts the aftermath of a Tartar attack in two separate scenes, Phiz depicts the Europeans standing up to the thieves. Finally, Paget leaves out the Europeans entirely and depicts a Tartar horseman in full retreat, one of the 1891 edition's dozen full-page lithographs. The second Paget illustration of Crusoe's encounter with the nomad horsemen dramatizes the conclusion of the brief skirmish when, confounded "with the noise of [European] guns," one of the last three makes good his escape (left) as the brave Scot in Crusoe's party shoots the second of the three Tartars.

Related Material

Cruikshank's Scenes of Combat with the Tartars (1831)

Left: As Crusoe regains consciousness, he discovers that his companions have driven off the robbers in Crusoe, regaining consciousness, sees the dead Tartar. Right: Cruikshank's dramatic tailpiece for Farther Adventures: Crusoe and his partyy deliver a furious volley from behind a stockade of stacked tree trunks in The Europeans fire a withering volley at the charging Tartar horde in Russia. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Phiz's Interpretation of the Tartars' Theft of the Camel (1864)

Above: Phiz's highly dramatic, full-page illustration of the Portuguese pilot's grabbing the Tartar, Robinson Crusoe attacked and robbed by Tartars. [Click on image to enlarge it.]

The Cassell's Interpretations of the Tartar Cavalry (1864)

Above: The Cassell's team produced a pair of highly dramatic, full-page illustrations for Crusoe's adventures in Tartary; particularly dynamic is A Fight with Tartars, in which the Europeans stage a daring charge. [Click on image to enlarge it.]

Above: The second Cassell's full-page composite woodblock engraving shows the Tartars in full retreat as European weaponry results in casualties and fatalities on their side, but none on the other: Flight of the Tartars. [Click on image to enlarge it.]

Stothard's and Paget's Scenes involving the Tartars (1790, 1820; 1891)

Left: As Crusoe and his party cross Tartar territory, the wily horsemen shadow them in Stothard's Robinson Crusoe travelling in Chinese Tartary. Right: Paget's dramatic full-page realisation of the Tartars' retreat, As soon as they saw us, one of them blew a kind of horn. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

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 16 April 2018