458 



AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



established themselves at the foot of the Andes in the Corcovado Valley, near 

 \\hich are some auriferous deposits. 



New Wales. 



The colony, which sends out its pioneers to this almost uninhabited though 



highly fertile region, has been founded at the other extremity of the fluvial basin 



close to the Atlantic coast. On the representations of a fellow-countryman who 



had visited Patagonia, 132 Welsh people landed in 1865 on the shores of the vast 



Fig. 180. — Welsh Colony of Chubut. 

 Scale 1 : 1 ,500 000. 



0rr^^^;. 



West oF breenwich 



Depths. 



0tol2 

 Fathoms. 



12 Fathoms 

 and upwards. 



30 Miles. 



circular basin of Golfo Nuevo, where the Fori Iladnjn pier projects into the bay. 

 From this point they reached the banks of the Chubut by an overland route 

 across the wilderness, and forthwith set about the work of colonisation, building 

 cabins, tilling and sowing the ground. 



But all were either quarrymen or coal-miners, unaccustomed to field operations. 

 The crops were wretched in this arid Patagonian region where rain seldom falls, 

 and where at times the soil remains unrefreshed by a single shower for two or 

 three years together. Fortunately these persevering settlers were men of kindly 

 feeling, and soon made friends of the Tehuel-che Indians, who supplied them with 

 food, such as game, fish, wild berries from the mountains in exchange for bread 

 and a few little articles of English manufacture. 



