New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-03-06
A PATAGONIAN UTOPIA.
SHATTERED ILLUSIONS OF WELSH
coIoNISTS. WITH sIDELIGHTS FROM
THE EXPERIENCE OF THE
PILGRIM FATHERS.
London. February IS.

~ the Colonial Office to-day, where Mr. Cham
berlain has been asked 10 assist in transplant
ing Welsh colony from Patagonia to the Do.
,ninion Of Canada. AS the story of exile, mis-
,ortune and fortitude was told by Mr.. W. J.
Griffith the Canadian Government agent for
Wales and Mr.. w. 8. Rees, who accompanied
him il an official visit TO the Welsh settlement
IN Patagonia, analoges between the fate OF
these agricultural coonists and the disappoint-
-nents and trials Of the Pilgrim Fathers in the
Netherlands and in New-England ap-
parent The Welsh delegation which sought to
interest the Colonial Secretary in the removal
OF their kinspeople from Chubat 10 the wheat
growing belt Of the Northwest. was not i'm
pressed with the parallel but regarded the mat
ter as imperial transaction. Mr. Chamber
lain, having married Endicott from Salem,
knows New England traditions and the his
toric reputation Of the Pilgrims Of Plymouth
Rock and The Puritans Of Massachusetts Bay as
sturdy pioneers and men of business as well
as religious enthusiasts. The points of re-
semb.arce and variation between the two stories
Of British pioneering can hardly have escaped
his notice.
The settlement at jamestown conceded in
time with the removal of a number of English
families TO Leyden under the leadership Of a
separarist minister, John Robinson. and Elder
Brewster. They remained in Holland for twelve
years, and while they enjoyed a full measure
on foreign soil and after serious consultation
and much misgiving decided to emigrate again,
and to establish themselves in the New World
on their political foundations The Dutch
Government offered TO transport them in body
10 their possessions in New-Amsterdam, at the
mouth OF Henry Hudsons river. but the lead |
ers Of the thrifty community in Leyden pre-
ferred make their fresh start in the New
World as Englishmen. and TO avoid all foreign |
entangIements. Captain John Smith, after ex-
ploring the seaboard from the mouth of the |
Penobscot to Cape Cod, had named the country |
New-England and scattered among Devonshire |
towns p printed description Of his discoveries |
The Pilgrims, acting under the advice of Lon !
don merchants, declined the Dutch overtures |
and avoided the patronage of the Virginia and
other trading companies. They had been dis |
appointed by their experiences in Holland. and |
longed TO be by themselves in new country, |
where they could adapt themselves with English |
grit to the conditions of a strenuous life and
sustain and comfort one another by the develop |
nlent Of the home loving spirit characteristic OF
their race. So they crossed the Atlantic a |
body Of pilgrims. who had profited by a tenn |
porary exile in an uncongenial land; and they |
established the first settlement in New England |
without the aid and support of king or mercan-
-tie corporation In the quaint language of one
their earliest historians. they knew they |
re pilgrimes. and looked not much on those
ye heavens their dearest cuntrie, and quoted
their spirits"
The Welsh colony in Patagonia, like the Pill
grim settlement in Leyden was ministerial
enterprise based serious miscalculations
Professor Michael Jones, Of Bala, and the Rev.
Lewis Jones' OF Festiniog, the leaders, |
who advocated the project about thirty-hve
years ago. when the mechanics, artisans and
small farmers of Wales were restless and dis
THE lea erS Of
men, like fervid John Robinson, of Leyden. and
they lacked the business instincts of John Car
yer. William Brewster, William Bradford, Ed
ward Winslow and Miles Standsh, who sailed
in the Mayfiower They sank their private fort
unes and misdrected the energies of a credulous
company Of Welsh followers through careless
ness in selecting a barren desert as site for an
agricultural Utopia, where land would be free
from taxation and the community absolutely
self-governed. When the Welsh erngrants ar
rived off the coast Of Patagonia, they found
that they had been grossly deceived. sterile,
rainless tract, without trees or rich soil, had
been chosen as their farming centre If they
were free from church rates and local taxes,
ana able to live by themselves in democratic
simplicity. with immense estates Of their own,
they were also forced back upon the desert,
compelled TO dig caves for temporary refugees,
and exposed 70 terrible hardships in wrestling
q precarious living from one Of the most for
saken and unpromising regions on earth. Their
only resource was what Mr. Griffith happily
describes as a certain blend of optimism and
tenaciry. which is perhaps the exclusive pos
session OF the welshman-" In their hopeless
plight they kept ploddng away and making
the best of adverse conditions. One settler tried
the experiment Of diverting water from the
Chubat River 10 a small plot Of ground ana
his bit Of desert blossomed like the rose lrrlga-
ton canals were constructed on large scale
and. with a succession Of bountiful wheat har-
vests, the prospects Of the forlorn colony bright
ened. The river, after being their ally for
twenty-four years, turned against them. For
four successive years disastrous foods have in
zolved the destruction of irrigation works, the
failure Of crops and the paralysis Of industry
After network Of irrigating trenches exceeding
two hundred miles in length had been con-
structed at an expense Of 100000, the Welsh
settlers were convinced that they had engaged
in an unequal conflict with nature and that not
even their own Flooding industry and Welsh
tenacity could overcome insuperable obstacles
20 prosperity Like the Pilgrims in Holland
they had made mistake in choosing their
place Of exile.
While the pioneers Of this agricultural colony
had lacked the religious motives Of John Rob-
inson's flock of separatists, they had shared the
sturdy Independence Of the Pilgrims, and their
dislike OF foreign interference and control. At
the outset they lived apart from the South
American races, and were not taxed. Their
Utopia. such as ii was. was a little. self-goV-
erned principality of their own. When their
affairs began to improve. owing to their own
energy in constructing irrigation works the
Argentine authorities imposed taxes upon the
farms appointed governors and ofhclals 10 Keep
the colonists in order. opened schools "here
Welsh children could learn Spanish and en-
forced the requirements of compulsory military
service. with Sunday as the regular day Tor