The Express.
London, England, 1868-10-22 00:00:00

4 -1

THE WELMI COLONY IN PATAGONIA.

'lfie Welsh colony in Patagonia, concerning the
condition of which es distressing details have
recintly been pat iisheil. appears to have suffered
unusual viciesituilea. The colony owes its origin
to the efferte of Mr. M. I). Jones, of the college at
Bala. in Wales, who seems to have been strongly
dean eus of est abliols:ng a settlement at which Welsh
ii:d le understood. and to which persons speak-
Mg that language only could proceed with I.ss
tmadvantage thertfroin than would be likely to
att.udthem in other colonies. Application had
pieviously been made to the English goveruluent
f, r it grant of territory for that purpose, but the
liang refused, Mr. Jones marl his friends
I.lilt tied their attention to South Anier.ea, where
the liite Admiral Fiti.roys who surveyed the aura
ef Piengonia, had reported the existence, on the
Visor Chupat, of a L veiny admirable alaptedfor
the purl iaes of a settlement. Admiral Fits-
ros's ass. rtiers were. in some ineasuns corrobo-
rat, d by a to at, tvcrit made by $r Woodbine
Parish. " iliatory of Buenos Ayres and the
Frorin, es ef to the eff,x.t that the
a'.ley was extremely fertile, liossestig a rich soil,
end i ring,ovoid with herds of wild cattle. In
lee 3 a tenanittte was despatched from Wales to
1:1., /We Ay iis for the purpose of obtaininz the can-
Ft I.t ef the Argentine government to the formation
ef the proposed colony, bat although the Argen-
tine regarded the project with appro-
-1 et ion. the national congress refused its consent to
the establishment of an European settlement
itLin the limits of the republic, the considerations
in favour of such refusal being the religion of the
proposed colorists, and the fact that wherever
a body, however small, of the Anglo-Saxon
race establish themselves, they always finally
succeed in possessing themselves of the
whole country. It was added that in this
particular instance the colonists would be
supported in their ambitions views by the neigh-
bcurhood of the British establishment at the
Falkland Isles, which are situated near the Pats-
gi nian (oust. Undeterred by this rebuff, froth
agents were again sent to Buenos Ayres, and at
last the Argentine government declared that they
would do for the colonists all that was permitted
by law. namely, allow each family settlinqli:
government land 100 acres of ground,
appeared to satisfy the Welsh agents, who re-
turned. without loss of time, to their employers in
Wales, for the purpose of reporting progress.
The next thing heard of the scheme was
tie establishment of a Welsh emigration society,
nt roll, .1 by a central committee in Liverpool.
Urder the auspices of this society a natice,
I .1 in We lsh. was extensively circulated
curious portions of the prinei-
j ality. ferth in glowing terms the
attractions of the proposed settlement in Pata-
gct.',i. ..1,1 stating that in addition to the 101
s of !..nd pr,entkd to e feh family. the first
li, f (migiants would r,eeive gifts of li ernes.
•:A tie. Wilt at. 11111,1•1111•TItS. &C. it was. however.
rielt d that "there is no certainty alseit th •
;.•nernt of these ; it is judged that they will
1e I. Ist ',lv, 1r osos. ten vows, twenty shell,
two or three peeks of wheat, a plough peculiar to
the arel a nund.er of 'nut trees to every
fan ily.•' Farther en the renter was told, "It
a ill le pknre 1 through the agents to have wheat
for I read. W. we 11 as for sowing, for four months.
until the first crop from the earth;" also,
" there will It' 10,111111:tilt t• of animal food." These
Frlttf Iln•—n hich were not exactly true—were
accepts d by the simple peasantry by whom
thee ea re permed. and at length a vessel, the
Lady Huth 11. was chartered by the society to con-
vey rat emigrants out, on the 27th April, 1565,
but the ship not arriving at Liverpool on the
day lix«1 for her departure, the emigrants
ri tamed to thi it native homes. Mr. Jones, who
appears to have possessed considerable faith in the
movement, unwilling that the emigration scheme
should suffer from this untoward event, re-col-
lected the disappointed people, to the number of
153, including men, women, and children, who
finally started in the Mimosa for the east coast
of Patagonia. on May 31, 1863. One-third only
of the party were ablelx,died men, a circumstance
to which the subsequent difficulties experienced by
the colonists were primarily attributable. After
a voyage of upwards of 7,000 miles, the emigrants
arrived at Bahia Nueva on the 28th of July, hav-
ing lest Bye children at sea. Here they were de-
tidied a month or six weeks, having no
no ens of transporting their effects to the
Chupat. At last the women and children
were conveyed from Bahia Nueva to Chupat,
forty miles distant by land, and seventy miles
by sea, in a schooner called the Mary Ellen. The
voyage was not expeetecl to have lasted more
than a couple of days, but owing to the preva-
lence of ti inpestuous weather the vessel was no
I'S/. than 17 (hil► nicking the passage, nearly all the
women and children being kept huddled together
that time in a semi-starved condition in the
shahs Lold. This disastrous voyage occasioned
the deati .of five more children. The male colo-
nSsts for the most part proceeded to the Chupat on
feet, in small parties. the route lying through a
ild and uninhabited district. Some of the men,
dieing ignorant of the landmark.. of the district,
found themselves obliged to pass four or five
eights on the road, in the open air, and nearly
without food. On arriving at the site of
the intend. d settlement it was found--it
being the beginning of October—that the
time for sowing had passed by, and that to a
great extent they would become dependent on
their own rescurces. Some dissatisfaction was ex-
pressed at this, the more so that the agent, Mr.
Lenin Jones, announced his intention of proceed-
ing in the Mary Ellen, which formed the only
link between the settlers and the rest of the world,
to. some other ;duce where the prospect seemed
brighter. Meeting on his way a vessel laden with
stores, ordered some time previously by him, he
returned to the colonists whom he had so hastily
deserted, but they refused to have anything to do
with him.

About the beginning of 1899 accounts from
Patagonia and Buenos Ayres reported that over
one-third of the emigrants had fallen a prey to
famine and want of water; also that the situation
of the survivors was precarious in the extreme.
'nese reports being brought under the atten-
tion of the English government, the Earl
if Clarendon forwarded instructions to Mr.
Ford, at Buenos Ayres, to investigate the whale
matter, maul to procure for the emigrants what-
ever assistance and protection the government of
the Argentine Republic could aff,,rd them. Mr.
Ford found that the alarming statementa made re-
specting the condition of the colonists were devoid
of truth; at the same time he expressed his belief
that the colony had little chance of permanently
establishing itself unless assisted by the Argentine
government. The men were generally unac-
quainted with farming work, and displayed con-
siderable luck of energy. In almost every possible
respect they were totally unqualified to act as
pioneers in a land at present occupied only by
Indians and wild animals. To the credit of the
Argentine government it should be mentioned
that, climate the incapacity of the emigrants,
they were taken under its protection, and
regularly supplied with food and other
neetwarien, the Argentine authorities being now
desirous to promote itt any cost the settlement of a
colony under their flag, on Patagonian soil, which
they claim as Argentine territory, but which,
from its hitherto uncsoupied condition, has been
open to dispute, although no direct question as to
its rightful sovereignty has been passed upon the
governuient. At first Mr. Ford, and Senor Raw-
son, Argentine Minister of the Interior, were led
to believe that the emigrants were an inherently
idle and lazy body, but afterwards they acknow-
ledged their mistake. Whatever might be the
shortemeings--and these were not few—of the
Welsh settlers, they were willing to work, and to
do all they could to develop the resources of the
roil. The settlers occupied a series of farms extend-
ing over &distance of 12 miles, the number of farms,
of 100 acres each, measured out being 500. It
was computed that the valley of the Chuput
could, if properly cultivated, support a colony of
about 20,000 souls. It aplicsars to have frequently
attracted, by reason of its rich fertility, the attea-