22 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA 



remained rather sore over the matter, complaining that England 

 had taken all the money subscribed for the expenses of the appeal 

 and given diem no redress in return. 



The difficulties and hardships which must inevitably have beset 

 the commencement of their settling in Patagonia, contrasted with 

 their pre ent condition, show the Welsh to be splendid people. The 

 resolute spirit that drove them to emigrate across the seas has 

 served to make their township there, though perhaps not particu- 

 larly inviting to look at, a flourishing one in its quiet pastoral way. 

 They have laid a railway, as has been said, to the coast at Puerto 

 Madryn and established a telephone. Spanish and Welsh live here 

 as neighbours. The Spaniard keeps the store while the Welshman 

 farms, growing a certain amount of grain, but his chief business 

 lies in breeding horses, cattle and sheep. 



The Welshmen are not wanting in keen business quality. 

 Any one who has tried to buy horses in Trelew will bear me out 

 in this statement. The mere fact that a stranorer has arrived in 

 their colony, who wants to invest in horseflesh, awakens all their 

 commercial instincts, and they are not at all behind the rest of the 

 world in knowing how to form a combine for the purpose of 

 plundering the Philistines. Quite right too. A man who can 

 resist making a bargain over a horse whenever he gets the chance 

 is, like " the good young man who died," over-perfect for this 

 corrupt old world. 



From their first settlement the Welsh have spread south 

 through the coast-towns of Patagonia, and six weeks' journey from 

 Trelew they have formed another settlement inthe Cordilleras to 

 the north-west which they have called the "i6th October Colony." 

 Thither waggons are always trekking, and waggon-drivers and 

 others who return bring with them glowing and rosy descriptions 

 of the young settlement of the interior. The adaptability of the 

 Welsh to the peculiar needs of colonisation is very remarkable. 

 They have certainly stepped into the " larger life " with success. 



The influence of the new conditions of existence, so different 

 from that of the Welsh peasant in his own country, is very notice- 

 able in several ways. The older and the younger generation are 

 unlike each other now, and will probably continue to become more 



