Welsh Journals

Jones was not the only one who recognized the need to establish an integrated Welsh settlement in terms of the United States, and indeed much of the impetus for such a settlement developed within the United States itself. In many respects, it was viewed as a joint project between interested and concerned parties on both sides of the Atlantic. As late as 1864 it appears that the initial group of settlers to be sent to Patagonia was to consist of Welsh people with pioneering experience in the United States, a group that was to consist of no more than thirty members consisting of four families and several individuals.6 Regular communication existed between interested parties on both sides of the Atlantic, but it was in Wales that the effective organizational basis of the emigration was established. At first this took the form of an informal association which paralleled more formal societies in the United States;7 but in 1861 a society to establish a Welsh settlement (Cymdeithas Wladfaol) was formed by a group of Welshmen resident in Liverpool.8 It was the committee of this society that was responsible for promoting and organizing the settlement in Patagonia, and although other attempts were subsequently made to form parallel societies it was this leader- ship by Michael Daniel Jones which continued to be the link between the settlement in Patagonia and the promotion and organization of emigration from Wales to the settlement. Several members of the committee emigrated themselves and served as go-betweens linking the settlement with the committee in Britain, while in later years a new leadership developed within the settlement and served the same function as their predecessors with reference to emigration.9 An understanding of the role of this leadership is essential. The interest in Wales and the United States coincided with a strong movement on the part of the Argentine authorities to promote European immigration. For many years immigration had been limited and little attempt had been made to entice immigrants. However, during the early 1860s politicians began debating the issue seriously, arguing on the basis of a comparison with the role of immigration to the United States in terms of that country's attempt to settle and develop its vast territories.10 This movement in I See the letter from R. J. Berwyn to T. B. Phillips dated 6 August 1864, which is in the possession of Sr. T. Williams, Esquel. R. Bryn Williams, Y Wladfa (1962), p. 44. 8 Lewis Jones, Hanes y Wladva Gymreig (Caernarvon, 1898), p. 30. This leadership amounted to about thirty people. Any research into the history of the settlement is most effectively undertaken by attempting to locate and analyse their personal papers. 10 Congreso Nacional, Camera de Senadores, Sesion del 23 de Septiembre de 1862. P.R.O., F.O. 6-318.