COX'S EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 55 service. 6th. The development of a new commercial artery by the navigation of the Rio Colorado. 7th. A safeguard for our sheepfarmers against the perils of drought, these men being formerly afraid to move their flocks towards the Indian territory. Moreover the lands adjacent to the Colorado might be made to produce wheat for the whole Republic, the freight to Bahia Blanca being easy, and therefore cheap. In September 1864 a German company with a proposed capital of three millions sterling sought a concession for the colonization of 30,000 square miles of territory between the rivers Colorado and Negro. The Company proposed to Government to introduce 20,000 European agricultural families within five years, on condition of a cavalry force of 2,000 men, under Colonel Machado, being placed for that period to defend the territory from the Indians. Each family was to receive free passage, a rancho, food for the first year, seeds and implements, one horse, two oxen, two cows, and 100 sheep. The emigrant would be required, in return, to sign bills for £200, payable in 40 yearly instalments. Each family was to receive 12 cuadras (50 acres) of land for tillage, and have the pasture lands of the colony in common with the rest. This enterprise shared the fate of those just mentioned. The Republic of Chile having always claimed a great portion of Patagonia, that Government commissioned Mr. Cox to explore the whole course of the Rio Negro, as that gentleman held the conviction that fluvial communication existed between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In 1859, making Port Montt (a German colony on the Pacific in S. Lat. 41.30) his starting point and base of operations, in company with a few determined companions, he passed the neck of the Cordillera at Mount Osorno, and reached the western shore of Lake Nahuel-huapi. But he had not calculated all the difficulties of the enterprise, and was obliged to desist and return to Valparaiso. The Government was pleased with his report, and the explorer only waited a favorable chance to carry out his design. On the 16th of December 1862, a complete expedition fully equipped by Government, and consisting of 18 persons under his command, again started from Port Montt, and reaching Lake Nahuel-huapi on New-year's day 1863, undertook to cross the lake in a boat left there by Mr. Cox on his former journey. A steep hill on the eastern shore now barred their progress, but they resolutely cut their way through a virgin forest, climbed the perilous glaciers, and Mr. Cox was the first who arrived at the summit, and saw, to his infinite joy, the broad stream of the Rio Negro winding its course eastward, till lost in the brown-colored Pampas of Patagonia. Having launched his boat in the Rio Negro, he determined to push downwards as far as the Argentine settlement of Carmen or Patagones, at the mouth, on the Atlantic. Fearing a shortness of provisions, he ordered the half of his party to return to Port Montt, and with the rest commenced to descend the river, which he found navigable, with about 10 or 12 feet of water. After some slight mishaps, in coming foul of the hidden obstacles, he had the misfortune to capsize the boat, and his men narrowly escaped drowning he owed his own safety to a life-belt, the water being here fourteen feet deep. The loss of all his charts and instruments was even less than that of the provisions, on which depended the lives of all the party. Luckily he fell in with a tribe of Pehuelches Indians, who at first determined to kill all the intruders, but the interpreter explaining that Mr. Cox was very rich, it was at length agreed that he should pay a large ransom, leaving four of his men as hostages, while he proceeded to Port Montt. He accordingly returned with the ransom, but instead of accompanying his men back to Chile, remained a voluntary companion of the Pehuelches, whose costume he even adopted, with the hope of accompanying them at the usual time of year in their journey to Carmen, to sell skins and ostrich feathers. Some neighboring tribes, hearing of the Christian who went hunting guanacos and ostriches with the Pehuelches, threatened to make a «malon» with fire and lance if he were permitted to remain in Indian territory, and he saw himself forced to return to Chile, where an account of his explorations has since been published at the cost of Government. By a fortunate coincidence Mr. Cox was wrecked at the very same rapids mentioned by the Spanish pilot Villarin, who reached this point in a small vessel which ascended the Rio Negro from the Atlantic. Hence Mr. Cox considers his expedition realized, and declares the watercourse navigable the whole way (excepting about a mile) from one ocean to the other. He speaks highly of M. Lenglier, a Frenchman who joined him in all his perilous adventures. He states that as the Argentines hold the line of the Rio Negro from Patagones to the island of Choel-echoel, it would be easy for Chile to occupy the remainder as far as Lake Nahuelhuapi, and by this means a splendid country would be thrown open for immigration, and a navigable highway made available for commerce across the continent. It would seem, however, that more than thirty years previously the late Captain Smyley had gone the same route: in a letter dated 10th February, 1865, he stated «In the years 1828 and 1829 I made a tour of the coast of Chile, from Copiapó to San Carlos (in the island of Chiloe), and from there crossed the CHILIAN AND ARGENTINE PROJECTS. 57 · Cordillera of the Andes with the Araucanian Indians. After that, I travelled with the Pampas, Chuhuelches, and Magellan Indians, from the head waters of the Rio Negro as far as the Straits of Magellan, and thencə back, over a more southern route, laying down the latitudes and longitudes of the principal places on both routes. I have several times since then travelled with the Indians on most parts of the coast of Patagonia. And I still claim to be the first white man who ever took this route; and I firmly believe, from what the Indians tell me, that no one has ever accomplished it since. I beg leave to differ with Mr. Cox, or any others who find a carriage road across the Andes, or judge the whole course of the Rio Negro navigable as far as the South Atlantic. At the same time I must acknowledge the route to be easy, and, for most of the way, through a fine country. Nor do I think the day far distant when this territory will prove the richest part of South America, both in mineral products and for agricultural purposes.» In the year 1864, Mr. Orestes Tornero, a native of Valparaiso, solicited from the Chilian Legislature a concession for all the territory lying between deg. 49, S. lat., and the Straits of Magellan, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This slice of land is 300 miles long (from Cape Virgin in the Atlantic to Cape Desirée in the Pacific), by 250 wide, which would give a superficial extent of 75,000 square miles, almost equal to the whole island of Great Britain. The concessionaire bound himself-1st. To establish colonies on the territory ceded, the minimum number of settlers at the end of ten years to amount to 10,000 persons; and, 2nd. To establish two, four, or more steam tugs. The colonists were to be free of taxes for fifty years. Another project for colonization and steam tugs was got up by Don Anjel Palazuelos; but it is not clear if either of these enterprises will ever be realised. At present, the Chilian Government is paying much attention to the navigation of Magellan's Straits, having sent a war steamer to accompany H.B.M.'s ship Nassau in the surveys and soundings ordered by the British Admirality. In August 1865, a grand project was got up by Don Juan Cruz Ocampo and M. Brie de Laustan (the latter gentleman had much colonial experience in Algiers); their prospectus was as follows: <<The petitioners propose to form a Joint-stock Argentine Credit Mobilier and Patagonia Colonization Company, within two years from date, with a capital of £1,000,000 to £4,000,000 sterling: such company to have power to emit Lettres de Gage guaranteed by Government. They propose to introduce 1,000 families (or 5,000 persons) within five years after formation of this company, and 3,000 in the succeeding ten years, to colonize the country lying between the Rivers Colorado and Negro, the Government ceding to the company three-fourths of a square league (4,800 acres) of land for each family introduced from any neighboring or foreign country. They further propose to introduce, within five years as above, 800 families to settle south of the Rio Negro, and so on 22,000 families within fifty subsequent years (divided in proportions of five years each), for the colonization of Patagonia proper, the Government ceding as before, at the company's choice, a square league (6,500 acres) for each family so settled. They propose to make these colonies pastoral, not agricultural, advancing to each family a sum of £400 sterling in passage money, house, maintenance for twelve months, and stock of 500 sheep, 50 cows, 3 mares, 2 horses, a waggon, seeds, farming implements, and grazing land: the amount of such advances, with interest and expenses, to be refunded by the colonists in yearly instalments not exceeding 12 per cent., which would be more than covered by the wool. They solicit from Government, besides a league of land for each family (in all 25,800 square leagues, or 155,000,000 acres), the following concession: «1st. Authority to govern the colony during sixty years, with a code approved by Government. <«<2nd. Half the nett proceeds of import and export duties of the colony for said term. «<3rd. Exemption from import duties on all instruments and animals introduced. «<4th. Maintenance by Government of a proper military force. «5th. Permission to build docks, railways, schools, &c. «<7th. Guarantee for the Lettres de Gaye.» Mr. Ocampo died of cholera in April 1867, and M. de Laustan went home to France. This was the last grand emigration scheme connected with Patagonia, only one of which was ever carried out, and the history thereof (the Welsh Colony) we shall now proceed to narrate. THE WELSH COLONY. In July 1863, the following concession was signed by the Argentine Government : «The Minister of Interior of the Argentine Republic, Dr. William Rawson, in name of the Government, on the one part, and a special committee of the Welsh Emigration Society, composed of the following persons-G. H. Whalley, M. P., David Williams, High Sheriff of Carnarvon, and Robert John Parry, of Madrin Castle, Wales-on the other part, have agreed to conclude the following contract : <<1st. The Welsh Emigration Society shall send out, during ten years, from 300 to 500 families of emigrants yearly, and establish them in the territory of Patagonia, in the Argentine Republic, South of the Rio Negro. «<2nd. The Argentine Government grants to every 200 families a municipal fee in perpetuity of two square leagues of land, the half of such land to be devoted to edifices and public works, such as schools, churches, town-hall, house of correction, and other public purposes; the remaining half to be distributed in building plots, either to be given gratis to the first settlers, or sold afterwards for the rental support of the colony. «<3rd. In addition to the 25 squares of land given by the law to each emigrant family, the National Government will grant an area of five square leagues for every 200 families, adjacent to the respective munici· pality, to be divided among them. «4th. In case the colonists require more land, they shall be permitted to buy or rent the same, of the Government, on the most moderate terms, in accordance with the laws of the country. «5th. Any mines of metal, coal, or minerals which may be discovered, shall belong to the finder, without any other impost than the sovereignty' as decreed by the law. <<6th, The general management of affairs and government of the colony, shall be vested in a commissioner or governor appointed by the National Government, in the manner, and for the period, directed by the laws to be made and provided for territorial jurisdiction. <<7th. The municipal administration shall belong exclusively to the colonists, in accordance with their own regulations. <«<8th. The colonists shall be exempt from all military service or contributions for the term of ten years; but they engage to defend themselves, unaided, against the Indians. «9th. When the population of the colony shall have arrived at the number of 20,000 souls, it will enter as a new province, to form part of the nation, and, as such, shall be endowed with all the rights and privileges thereunto belonging: at the same time its territorial limits shall be definitively marked out. <<10th. The National Government, seeing the distance and solitude of these localities, will furnish the first company of emigrants with 4 pieces of artillery, 50 fanegas Indian corn, 50 fanegas wheat, 50 tons lumber for building, 200 tame horses, 50 milch cows, and 3,000 sheep. «11th. The society will give timely notice to the Government of the |