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My next care was for some ammunition and arms. There were two very good fowling-pieces in the great cabin, and two pistols. These I secured first, with some powder-horns and a small bag of shot, and two old rusty swords. I knew there were three barrels of powder in the ship, but knew not where our gunner had stowed them; but with much search I found them, two of them dry and good, the third had taken water. [Chapter IV, "First Weeks on the Island," pp. 49-50]

As soon as I saw them shipped and gone, I took two guns upon my shoulders, and two pistols in my girdle, and my great sword by my side without a scabbard, and with all the speed I was able to make went away to the hill where I had discovered the first appearance of all; and as soon as I got thither, which was not in less than two hours (for I could not go quickly, being so loaded with arms as I was), I perceived there had been three canoes more of the savages at that place; and looking out farther, I saw they were all at sea together, making over for the main. [Chapter XIII, "The Wreck of a Spanish Ship," p. 183]

Commentary

Although no textual passage or description corresponds to these embossed images of Crusoe's weapons (spine) and returning from hunting with Friday (front cover), the ornamental cover design tells us much about how British readers in the 1860s must have conceived of Defoe's narrative of survival and resilience. The masculine references to weapons and hunting are congruent with mid-Victorian notions of this being a boy's adventure story. In particular, the cover references the camaraderie between the "master," the castaway European, and the faithful servant, Crusoe's "man," Friday. Although no passage corresponds to the book-cover, constituents the design appear throughout the early period of Crusoe's occupation of the island, which begins with Crusoe's using one of his firearms to bring down a bird. The first land-animal he kills is a she-goat.

I found also that the island I was in was barren, and, as I saw good reason to believe, uninhabited except by wild beasts, of whom, however, I saw none. Yet I saw abundance of fowls, but knew not their kinds; neither when I killed them could I tell what was fit for food, and what not. At my coming back, I shot at a great bird which I saw sitting upon a tree on the side of a great wood. I believe it was the first gun that had been fired there since the creation of the world. I had no sooner fired, than from all parts of the wood there arose an innumerable number of fowls, of many sorts, making a confused screaming and crying, and every one according to his usual note, but not one of them of any kind that I knew. As for the creature I killed, I took it to be a kind of hawk, its colour and beak resembling it, but it had no talons or claws more than common. Its flesh was carrion, and fit for nothing. [Chapter IV, "First Weeks on the Island," p. 52]

Through trial and error, he discovers which birds are edible: "I killed a sea-fowl or two, something like a brand goose, and brought them home" (95). The designer of the cover gives us a Crusoe in his now-familiar goatskin clothing carries a musket in one hand and the pole in the other, with Friday, similarly armed, carrying the other end. Crusoe's dog barks at the dead goat. Other creatures who have been harvested include a fish and a parrot; the plants include grapes, tropical fruits, and maize. The designer's initials, "JL," signifying John Leighton, lie between the frisking dog and the name "Crusoe." The encompassing motif includes topical vines and flowers. On the spine the designer has incorporated Crusoe's goatskin umbrella (earlier depicted by Cruikshank in Friday's Footprint — Crusoe discovers a human footprint on the beach.) and one of Crusoe's parrots (likely, "Poll") above, and various tools and weapons below: a saw, a hatchet, a sabre in its scabbard, a short-sword, a bow, fishing-spears, ropes, and crossed muskets. The colonial theme, then, involves conquering the wilderness and constructing housing and defences on the one hand, and shooting game, and preparing for the assault of unfriendly aborigines on the other. Thus, the cover defines Crusoe as the ultimate agent of British imperial expansion in the nineteenth-century: hunter, gatherer, farmer, and master.

The golden image of the civilised aborigine on the cover closely adheres to Defoes's own description of Friday:

He was a comely, handsome fellow, perfectly well made, with straight, strong limbs, not too large; tall, and well-shaped; and, as I reckon, about twenty-six years of age. He had a very good countenance, not a fierce and surly aspect, but seemed to have something very manly in his face; and yet he had all the sweetness and softness of a European in his countenance, too, especially when he smiled. His hair was long and black, not curled like wool; his forehead very high and large; and a great vivacity and sparkling sharpness in his eyes.The colour of his skin was not quite black, but very tawny; and yet not an ugly, yellow, nauseous tawny, as the Brazilians and Virginians, and other natives of America are, but of a bright kind of a dun olive-colour, that had in it something very agreeable, though not very easy to describe. His face was round and plump; his nose small, not flat, like the negroes; a very good mouth, thin lips, and his fine teeth well set, and as white as ivory.​[Chapter XIV, "A Dream Realised,"​p. 205]

Related Material

• Stothard's illustrations (1790)
• Cruikshank's illustrations (1831)
• Edward Henry Wehnert (1813–68): Illustrations for Robinson Crusoe (1862)
• Gilbert's illustrations (1860s)
• Variations on Robinson Crusoe
• Capitalism
• Illustrated Editions, 1736—1871
• The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe il. H. M. Brock at Project Gutenberg
• The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe at Project Gutenberg

References

De Foe, Daniel. Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, including A Memoir of the Author, and an Essay on his Writings. Illustrated by Phiz. London & New York: Routledge, Warne, and Routledge, 1864.

De Foe, Daniel. The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Written by Himself. Illustrated by Gilbert, Cruikshank, and Brown. London: Darton and Hodge [1867?].

Lester, Valerie Browne. Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.

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Last modified 30 January 2018