The Welsh In Patagonia
In July 1865, 153 Welsh men, women and children who had fled Britain to escape cultural and religious oppression disembarked from their boat, the Mimosa , and took the first steps into what they believed was to be their Promised Land. Here they planned to emulate the Old Testament example of bringing forth gardens from the wilderness, but though the land around the Golfo Nuevo had the appearance of Israel, its parched harshness cannot have been of much comfort to those who had left the green valleys of Wales and just spent two deprived months on board ship. The omens were far from auspicious: on the very first day, a young man who had gone to climb a nearby hill to take a look around disappeared, never to be seen again. The wheat they planted failed to prosper, and a lack of fresh water forced them to look further afield. Fired by Robert FitzRoy's descriptions of the valley of the Chubut river, they explored south and, a few months later, managed to relocate - a piecemeal process during which some groups had, in the words of one of the leading settlers, Abraham Matthews, to live off "what they could hunt, foxes and birds of prey, creatures not permitted under Mosaic Law, but acceptable in the circumstances, and legal, no doubt for He whose mercy is as infinite as his holiness". The learning curve was proving steeper than any had imagined. Doubts and insecurities spread, with some settlers petitioning the British to rescue them and others seeking governmental permission to relocate in a more favourable area of the country. When all avenues of credit seemed closed, vital assistance came from the Argentinian Government by way of provisions and substantial monthly subsidies, but the situation remained precarious. The settlers lived in a constant state of anxiety, too, about the native inhabitants of those parts, but despite initial mistrust, the meeting with the Tehuelche, when it eventually materialized, proved less hostile than they had feared. The Tehuelche taught the Welsh survival and hunting skills, which proved invaluable when the settlers, unused to the seasons and the climate, found their agricultural skills wanting: their sheep died and the first three harvests failed. By this time, 44 settlers had abandoned the attempt, and sixteen had died. However, optimists looked to the fact that ten new settlers had since arrived, and that 21 new Welsh-Argentines had been born into the community. They decided to stick it out. With increasing awareness of irrigation techniques, the pioneers began to coax their first proper yields from the Chubut valley. In addition, recruitment trips to Wales and the USA brought a much-needed influx of new settlers in 1874, the year in which Gaiman was founded. Much hardship and adventure lay ahead, with catastrophic flooding of the untamed Chubut and periodic strains in the generally harmonious relations with the "brothers of the desert", the Tehuelche, but the balance had been tipped. By the late 1880s, the community was employing poorer, more recent immigrants, both Spanish and Italian, in the construction of a railway from Trelew to Madryn. Yet the best indicator of the progress achieved by this proud community was the international recognition received when samples of barley and wheat grown in Dolavon returned from major international expositions in Paris (1889) and the USA (1892) with gold medals in their respective categories
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