Robinson Crusoe and Friday reading the Bible
Sir John Gilbert, R. A.
1867?
Steel-engraving
7.9 cm high x 5 cm, vignetted
Illustration for Daniel Defoe's Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, facing p. 171.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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During the long time that Friday had now been with me, and that he began to speak to me, and understand me, I was not wanting to lay a foundation of religious knowledge in his mind; particularly I asked him one time, who made him. The poor creature did not understand me at all, but thought I had asked who was his father.But I took it up by another handle, and asked him who made the sea, the ground we walked on, and the hills and woods. He told me, it was one Benamuckee, that lived beyond all. He could describe nothing of this great person, but that he was very old; much older, he said, than the sea or land, than the moon or the stars. I asked him then, if this old person had made all things, why did not all things worship him. He looked very grave, and with a perfect look of innocence, said, "All things say O! to him." I asked him if the people who die in his country went away anywhere. He said, yes; they all went to Benamuckee. Then I asked him, whether those they eat up went thither: he said, "Yes."
From these things, I began to instruct him in the knowledge of the true God. I told him, that the great Maker of all things lived up there, pointing up towards heaven: that he governed the world by the same power and providence by which he made it; that he was omnipotent, and could do everything for us, give everything to us, take everything from us: and thus, by degrees, I opened his eyes. He listened with great attention, and received with pleasure the notion of Jesus Christ being sent to redeem us, and of the manner of making our prayers to God, and His being able to hear us, even in heaven. He told me one day, that if our God could hear us, up beyond the sun, he must needs be a greater God than their Benamuckee, who lived but a little way off, and yet could not hear, till they went up to the great mountains where he dwelt to speak to them. I asked him if ever he went thither to speak to him: he said, no; they never went that were young men; none went thither but the old men,whom he called their Oowokakee, that is, as I made him explain to me, their religious, or clergy; and that they went to say O (so he called saying prayers), and then came back, and told them what Benamuckee said. By this I observed, that there is priestcraft even among the most blinded, ignorant pagans in the world; and the policy of making a secret of religion, in order to preserve the veneration of the people to the clergy, not only to be found in the Roman, but perhaps among all religions in the world, even among the most brutish and barbarous savages. [Chapter XV, "Friday's Education," pp. 171-72]
De Foe, Daniel. The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Written by Himself. Illustrated by Gilbert, Cruikshank, and Brown. London: Darton and Hodge, 1867?].
Last modified 18 February 2018
