Gildas Kansas Jones

3 February, 2008

Trevelin, Argentina

 

Dear Troop 27,

 

One of the best things about traveling around the world is that you discover unexpected things in unexpected places, including here in Patagonia.

 

As in the United States, when Argentina was opened for settlement, advertising and recruitment was conducted across Europe to attract settlers to the new lands of opportunity. Among the many new immigrant groups in Argentina, a colony was established on the Atlantic coast of people from Wales.

 

The coastal Welsh colony was very successful and prosperous, and soon outgrew the local resources. Consequently, they petitioned the governor for permission to explore westward, into the Patagonian frontier lying before the Andes Mountains, for suitable lands for another Welsh settlement.

 

The governor authorized an expedition and the group of one “Norte Americano” (from the U.S.), two Germans, six Argentinians and 21 Welsh set out westward into the unknown, unexplored, unmapped, terra incognita of Patagonia.