IN September 25 1965 the Argentine Government issued an 8 pesos stamp to commemorate the centenary of the Welsh colonisation of Patagonia. The stamp design shows the tea clipper Mimosa, which was specially converted into a passenger vessel for this voyage, against a map of the Province of Chubut, where the Welshmen made their settlement. They landed at Puerto Madryn, Patagonia on July 28, 1865, sailing from Liverpool on May 25.
From 1853 onwards successive Argentine Governments had devised various measures for attracting emigrants. Contracts were made for bringing families of agricultural workers from Europe. Land was granted to these colonists and many of the settlements, sometimes after years of hardship and struggle, flourished and became permanent. The Welsh settlement was one of this group.
It was led by an ardent Welsh Nationalist, Mr. Michael D. Jones, who was convinced that there must be somewhere in the world an isolated place where a colony could be established for the purpose of preserving, uncontaminated, the Welsh language, customs and Nonconformist religion. Mr. Jones was impressed by the Argentine Government's offer to settlers, promising land, sheep, horses and grain for 12 months after the settlers' landing, and Patagonia seemed ideally remote from any other peoples and cultures to preserve the Welsh culture he so ardently championed.
The Welsh leader had not been to Patagonia and could have no idea of the desolate territory he had chosen. It seemed ideal for his purpose and the 152 Welsh immigrants who sailed with him in the Mimosa. This clipper was built by Alexander Hall at Aberdeen in 1853 and was a vessel of 410 gross tons, with a length of 139 ft. 9 in., a beam of 25 ft. 5 in. and 15 ft. 6 in. depth. Her official number was 1973 and signal letters HFMN.
The Mimosa was a full-rigged ship with raised fo'c'sle and quarterdeck. Obviously the stamp designer had no idea of the vessel's appearance and has merely given an impression of her. She first appears in Lloyd's Register of 1874.
Welsh records give the ship's tonnage as 447. The discrepancy in these two tonnages could easily be explained by the amount of conversion work necessary to convert the clipper into a passenger-carrying ship. Cabin space was provided by dividing up the holds with stout planks and boards and there were no portholes. She was no pleasure ship; all passengers were carried at steerage rates, £12 for each adult.
Conditions on the specially printed passenger tickets specified that the shipowner would provide each passenger with three quarts of water daily, apart from that required for cooking, and a weekly food allowance of 31/2 lb. of bread or biscuit, not inferior in quality to Navy biscuit; 11 lb. of wheat flour; 1'/2
lb. of oatmeal; 11/2 lb. of sugar; 11/2 ozs. of mustard; 1/4 oz. white or black pepper; 2 ozs. salt and a gill of vinegar.
History records that these courageous folk left Liverpool singing hymns as they sailed towards the New World. They must have been nearly heartbroken when they reached their promised land in the middle of a Patagonian winter, after two months at sea. Although the Argentine Government advertised for agricultural workers, only four of the adult Welsh male settlers came under this category. They were an ill-selected company for an agricultural settlement and suffered terrible privations for several years. Their crop plantings were a calamitous failure and they would certainly have starved but for the supplies of food sent to them annually by the Argentine Government or left occasionally by a British warship. It was the local Araucanian Indians however who helped them most, teaching them to manage horses, to use the bolas and lasso, and to hunt wild animals such as the guanaco. During the conquest of the desert the colonists did not take up arms against the Indians, unlike the Argentinians, who tried to wipe them out. The Indians returned the Welshmen's friendship and they became lasting friends.
After learning to canalise the waters of the Chubut River for the irrigation of their fields, the settlement began to prosper, until today the territory of Chubut contains some 12,000 descendants of the original Welsh settlers and those Welshmen who followed them to the area. Of these some 5,000 still speak Welsh, although the Spanish language is now compulsorily taught in the schools of the province under Argentine law.
The territory of Chubut nowadays has a population of approximately 150,030, but is still avoided by most Argentinians because of its cold, barren wastes. Wales is naturally very proud of her South American settlers and keeps in contact with their descendants.
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