"We filled our jars" — illustration for Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" (1891)

"We filled our jars"

Wal Paget (1863-1935)

three-quarter-page lithograph

12 cm high by 11 cm wide, vignetted.

1891

Robinson Crusoe, embedded on page 17.

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: Another Scene from the African Adventure

I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the coming of canoes with savages down the river; but the boy seeing a low place about a mile up the country, rambled to it, and by-and-by I saw him come running towards me. I thought he was pursued by some savage, or frighted with some wild beast, and I ran forward towards him to help him; but when I came nearer to him I saw something hanging over his shoulders, which was a creature that he had shot, like a hare, but different in colour, and longer legs; however, we were very glad of it, and it was very good meat; but the great joy that poor Xury came with, was to tell me he had found good water and seen no wild mans.

But we found afterwards that we need not take such pains for water, for a little higher up the creek where we were we found the water fresh when the tide was out, which flowed but a little way up; so we filled our jars, and feasted on the hare he had killed, and prepared to go on our way, having seen no footsteps of any human creature in that part of the country. [Chapter II, "Slavery and Escape," page 19]

Related Material

Parallel Scenes from Stothard's 1790 series, the 1815 Children's Books, Cruikshank (1831), Wehnert (1862), and Cassell (1863-64)

Left: Thomas Stothard's elegant late-18th c. realisation of the lion incident in Crusoe's African adventure, Robinson Crusoe and Xury alarmed at the sight of a lion (1790). Centre: A Chapbook-like woodblock engraving with broken chains, signifying young Crusoe's escaping slavery, Robinson Crusoe throwing the Moor overboard (1815). Right: Wehnert's realisation of the same scene, with a highly realistic and dynamic interpretation: Crusoe throwing the Moor overboard (1862). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Above: George Cruikshank's realistic wood-engraving of the Corsair fishing-boat off the coast of Sallee, Crusoe tosses the Moorish deckhand overboard (1863-64). [Click on image to enlarge it.]

Above: Cassell's highly realistic wood-engraving of the Corsair fishing-boat and the coast of Sallee, Crusoe escapes with Xury (1863-64). [Click on image to enlarge it.]

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 23 April 2018