"We called him in alone" — illustration for Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" (1891)

"We called him in alone" (See p. 313). Paget has employed the previous illustrations to establish the identities of the young Roman Catholic priest (centre), Crusoe in gold-braided coat (left), and Will Atkins holding his feathered hat (right). The scene is one of a series depicting Defoe's discussion of the Christianizing of colonizers and colonized alike. Half of page 316, vignetted: 9.4 cm high by 12 cm wide. Running heads: "Will Atkins and His Wife" (page 317) and "Our Talk with Atkins" (page 315).

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

Well, as Will Atkins and his wife were gone, our business there was over, so we went back our own way; and when we came back, we found them waiting to be called in. Observing this, I asked my clergyman if we should discover to him that we had seen him under the bush or not; and it was his opinion we should not, but that we should talk to him first, and hear what he would say to us; so we called him in alone, nobody being in the place but ourselves, and I began by asking him some particulars about his parentage and education. He told me frankly enough that his father was a clergyman who would have taught him well, but that he, Will Atkins, despised all instruction and correction; and by his brutish conduct cut the thread of all his father’s comforts and shortened his days, for that he broke his heart by the most ungrateful, unnatural return for the most affectionate treatment a father ever gave. [Chapter VII, "Conversation betwixt Will Atkins and his Wife," page 313]

Commentary

Crusoe, the priest, and Will Atkins discuss the baptism of the planter's aboriginal wife. Significantly, the only marriage ceremony dramatised in the novel is that of Crusoe's Jack-of-all-trades and the maid, Susan, the result (apparently) of a shipboard romance. All of the English settlers have taken native wives, but Defoe deals only with the rather spiritual relationship between Will and Mary Atkins. What the young Catholic priest and Crusoe had "seen under the bush" as they made their way through the jungle to Atkins' plantation was the young planter discussing Christian doctrine with his wife. The subsequent discussion of Atkins' educational background reveals that he rebelled against the teachings of his father, a Church of England minister. Like Crusoe himself, he acted without due regard for his parents' feelings, and has been consumed with guilt and regret ever since. Thus, this scene is roughly equivalent to the 1864 illustration of a guilt-ridden Will Atkins, Will Atkins, Crusoe, and the Priest. However, the emotions do not run so high in the 1891 lithograph as the three converse about Atkins' upbringing and education, and Crusoe is hardly the fragile elder of the earlier illustration.

Related Material

Relevant illustrations from other 19th editions, 1820-1864: The Bible Presentation

Left: The Wehnert engraving of the same scene, Crusoe giving Bible to Will Atkins (1862). Centre: The 1864 Cassell edition's realistic wood-engraving of the same scene, Will Atkins, Crusoe, and the Priest (1864). Right: The original Stothard scene of Crusoe's return to the island, Robinson Crusoe distributing tools of husbandry among the inhabitants (1820). [Click on images to enlarge them.]

Above: Cruikshank's realisation of Crusoe's visiting Will and his wife, Crusoe presents a Bible to Will Atkins and his native wife (1831). [Click on image to enlarge it.]

Reference

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 5 April 2018