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Part of the huge exodus of European
peoples, great numbers of Scots emigrated overseas in the hundred years
before the first world war. Most of them settled in the United States of
America or in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other parts of Britain’s
vast empire. A significant minority, however, emigrated to South American
states, Argentina being a popular choice. The first Scots settled there in
the years prior to Argentina becoming an independent confederation in 1816;
they were the forerunners in a wider immigration which would eventually
contribute to a remarkable but little known economic and social
relationships between Scotland and Argentina, and Patagonia Austral, the
southernmost provinces of Argentina and Chile.
The
impetus behind emigration came in many forms.
Changes in the Scottish rural economy, industrialisation and rapid
population growth had profound effects, on the one hand leading to
displacement from the land and internal migration to urban centres, and on
the other promoting demands for export markets and the import of foodstuffs
and raw materials. In these circumstances, emigration overseas appealed to
many Scots. Rural workers had prospects, denied to them in Scotland, to farm
their own land, urban workers could escape from low wages, poor conditions
and unemployment and establish themselves as prosperous artisans in
developing communities, and merchants had opportunities to found highly
profitable commercial houses. And, there were those who sought adventure,
exploration or escape from problems at home. Consequently, the Scots who
went to Argentina in the early years came from many backgrounds, and as they
established themselves so they attracted not only more of their kind but
also professional men such as ministers, doctors, teachers, representatives
of Scottish companies and clerks to meet the needs of their communities, and
members of the gentry and investors who put their wealth into land and
infrastructure. Add to these, wives, female relatives, governesses and
female farm servants, then by the end of the century Scottish immigrants
were to be found in all sectors of Argentine society and throughout the
land, from Buenos Aires and other urban centres to the vast lands of the
pampas and the sheep stations of Patagoma Austral. Immigration continued
in the first half of the 20th century, then halted. However, the Argentine
descendants of Scots have not forgotten their forebears and keep alive some
of the family traditions and the institutions introduced long ago.
The New Homeland
Immigrants had to come to
terms with a society that was strikingly different from Scotland. Formed
from former provinces of the Spanish empire, the Argentine Confederation
inherited the Roman Catholic Church and the Spanish language and culture as
its defining national characteristics. Furthermore, in the earlier part of
the century, most of the inhabitants were of Spanish colonial descent,
forming a long-established society in control of political and social
institutions. A land-owning elite dominated the established agricultural and
pastoral lands and its leading families fashioned the values and behaviours
of upper class society in Buenos Aires, Cordoba and other former colonial
cities. Beyond the cities the population consisted mainly of small farmers,
labourers and cattlehands - gauchos - who handled the great herds of
cattle and horses on the open ranges of vast estates. However, much of the
great plains - the pampas - as far south as the Rio Negro was
occupied by semi-nomadic Indian tribes whose skilled horsemen opposed
European settlement. Here, as the century progressed, there were parallels
with the expansion westwards of the U.S.A., with settlers moving on to
Indian lands, resistance by the tribes, the slaughter of the animals on
which they lived, military intervention, subjugation and
destruction of their way of life.
The
land itself was a striking experience for the
Scottish immigrants. Stretching from the present provinces of Salta, Jujuy
and Formosa in the north through to the fertile farmlands and pastures of
the western and central provinces, then southwards to the vast, largely
unoccupied plains of the pampas and finally beyond the Rio Negro into
the unexplored heart of Patagonia, there existed every contrast and variety
of climates and landscapes. The very vastness of the country was an
invitation to settlement and exploitation of its natural resources; yet at
the same time it posed many difficulties for immigrants. Beyond the
established cities there was little or no infrastructure of communications
and services. Consequently, those early settlers who sought to establish
farms, especially in the frontier lands of the pampas and the south
of the province of Buenos Aires, were largely dependent upon their own
resources and the help of neighbours, facing hardship, primitive living
conditions, crop failures and the hazards of Indian raids and
civil disorders.
Independence from Spain in 1816 was
soon followed by a succession of political conflicts, provincial uprisings,
civil wars, wars with neighbours, campaigns against the Indians and military
dictatorships, persisting in one form or another well into the second half
of the century. In one way or another these events affected economic
development, territorial expansion, law and order and, consequently, the
lives of immigrant families and communities.
The Scots merchant community in Buenos
Aires had to contend with trading uncertainties; rural communities suffered
from the depredations of conflicting armies and Indian incursions; and
government control waxed and waned. The long dictatorship of General Juan
Manuel de Rosas, from the late 1820’s to his downfall in 1852 imposed a
harsh measure of political order and stability, and his campaign against the
pampas Indians brought vast areas of the plains under government
control. However, his downfall led to further political instability and the
resurgence of Indian occupation and raids on frontier farms. Yet despite all
the problems, immigration continued to grow, the merchant community of
Buenos Aires prospered, rural settlement expanded and the produce of
Argentina increasingly found its way to Britain and the Continent.
From the 1860’s onwards Argentina
experienced dramatic development. The fertile lands of the pampas
became geared to the massive export of products to Britain and Europe. A
second brutal campaign against the Indians finally subjugated and
dispossessed them, territories were re-occupied and secure settlement
extended as far as the frontier with Patagonia. Immigrants, especially from
southern Europe, arrived in growing numbers, some moving on into rural areas
while others swelled the populations of Buenos Aires, Rosario and other
urban centres. The introduction of railways revolutionised internal
conununications, stimulating the movement of exports and imports, and
helping to weld together the widely separated provinces and communities.
Similarly, expanding steamship services and the advent of refrigeration
promoted trade with Europe and the United States, so that by 1900 some
twenty five percent of foreign commerce was with Great Britain. And, with
many of the old constitutional conflicts resolved and Buenos Aires formally
established as the federal capital, greater political stability coupled with
great prospects of profitable investment in land and services, stimulated
huge capital investment from Britain and France in particular.
Meanwhile, the settlement of Patagonia
Austral was under way, administrations were established and immigrants
encouraged to establish or work on sheep stations, so that by the turn of
the century a major export trade had been created.
Scottish Merchants
In the 16th century, when the River
Plate provinces were part of the Spanish Empire, some British merchants had
established trade links. Thus, a 1734 census of foreigners in Buenos Aires
recorded over sixty Britons, and to judge from the names alone, some were
probably Scots - Robert Barclay, William Stuart, William Dickie, John Gibson
and Thomas Maccadam. Still, the uncertainties of relations between Britain
and Spain and the restrictions on foreigners owning property and operating
commercial houses impeded development.
However, with the beginnings of the revolution against
Spanish rule in the early 1800’s, when the new authorities lifted some
restrictions, merchants were better placed to trade and to become permanent
features in the expanding commercial and social society of Buenos Aires.
In these years before and after independence in 1816,
several Scots established merchant houses in Buenos Aires, among them John
and William Parish Robertson, Thomas Fair, John Miller, John Orr, George
MacFarlane, Alexander MacKinnon, David Spalding and John McNeile. They came
from various parts of Scotland and it seems probable that many if not all of
them already had experience in trade and associations with the wealthy
merchant community in their homeland. Also, they had sufficient personal
wealth or the financial support of others in Scotland to enable them to
establish themselves in the existing commercial world of Buenos Aires, where
they had to develop contacts with Argentine merchants and landowners. Most
of them seem to have adapted successfully to their new environment, laying
the foundations of an increasingly prosperous business community.
Their success, based upon offering new services,
providing superior products at low cost, opening up new markets and taking
risks in anticipating demands for goods and services, encouraged others to
follow them. Lists of Scottish merchant houses in the 1820’s include, Brown,
Buchanan and Co., Dickson, Montgomery and Co., Anderson, Weir and Co., John
Gibson and Co., Stewart and McCall, and Duguid and McKerrall, as well as
long established names like Daniel MacKinlay and William Parish Robertson.
Later they were joined by others, among them Duncan McNab, David Methven,
Juan Smith, James Dodds and Thomas Drysdale. According to a British visitor
to Buenos Aires in the 1820’s, "The majority of British merchants are
natives of Scotland, proverbial for their talent and activity in trade"
[An Englishman (George Thomas Love)]. Perhaps the writer’s enthusiasm led
him to exaggerate the role of Scots in the larger community of British
merchants; nevertheless, their achievements were very significant,
especially when set against the uncertain background of political and
military conflict that bedevilled the country in the first half of the 19th
century.
However, their prosperity rested not only upon business
acumen but also on their relationships with one another and, importantly,
with the Argentine community. This latter relationship was strengthened by
acquiring knowledge of the culture and language of their hosts, forging
common commercial, property and political interests and, for some, through
inter-marriage. Several of these early merchants married into Argentine
families, for example, John McNeile whose marriage in 1813 was reported in
the "Greenock Advertiser": ‘Married:
July 1, at Buenos Aires, Mr. John McNeile, merchant, to
Donna Pasquala de las Talegas, with a fortune of 400,000 dollars", and
Dr. David Reid, a Catholic convert, who married a sister of Bernardino
Rivadavia, first president of the independent Republic.
At the political level the commercial and other interests
of Scots merchants benefited greatly from the enlightened policies of
Rivadavia. As secretary of state and then president between 1820 and 1827,
he encouraged immigration, decreed freedom of speech and the press,
negotiated a treaty of amity and commerce with Great Britain in 1825 and
fostered religious tolerance towards dissenters - all elements of his grand
economic and cultural vision for his country’s future. His downfall in 1827,
largely the consequence of the conflict between the Unitarios who wanted
strong and progressive central government for the republic and the
Federalistas who backed a looser federation of the provinces, was followed
by civil war and then by the long, repressive dictatorship of General Juan
Manuel de Rosas. However, the general principles of commercial freedom and
toleration for religious dissenters, essential to the long term success of
the Scots community, had been established.
At a more personal level, records of social and family
events in the Scots community often illustrate the importance of political
and commercial connections. Among the guests at St. Andrew’s Day dinners in
the 1820’s were distinguished Argentines, such as the governor and
ministers, and this practice was continued later in the century, with the
formation of a St. Andrew’s Society in Buenos Aires in 1888. Funerals of
eminent Scots were occasions for respects to be paid by Argentine notables.
Thus, among those attending the funeral of David Methven, a member of one of
the oldest Scots families in the country, were the President of the Chamber
of Deputies of Congress, the Governor of Tucuman Province and the President
of the National Bank.
From the early days the Scots kept alive their identity
through the celebration of Scottish events, such as St. Andrew’s Day
dinners, Burns Suppers, Caledonian Balls and Gatherings of the Clans. These
were occasions for meals of haggis, neeps and tatties, whisky, a bagpiper in
Highland dress, Scottish dancing and innumerable toasts to the King (later
the Queen), the Distinguished Guests, the President of Argentina, the City
of Buenos Aires, the Lassies and recitations of the poems of Robert Burns.
The annual dinners of the St. Andrew’s Society in Buenos Aires attracted
large numbers; the one in 1894 was attended by three hundred members,
including familiar names dating back to early times - Drysdale, Kincaid,
Dodds, Burnett and MacKinnon.
Their identity was also expressed through philanthropy
and public service. Thus, the 1893 obituary of John Drysdale, head of the
firm of J. and J. Drysdale and nephew of John Drysdale, one of the
"Merchant Princes of the Plate", said, "He held a high position
amongst the commercial public, being at various times appointed to the board
of one or other of the State banks he has been in fact for a long time
regarded as a representative of the British public in our city and whenever
anything was wanted to be done his countrymen looked to him for counsel and
co-operation... he was simultaneously chairman of the British Hospital, the
Convalescent Home and the British Cemetery, in all of which he took a most
lively interest... one of the earliest benefactors of the Boys’ Orphanage...
he rendered many valuable services also to the Scots Church... suffice to
say that he possessed like his uncle that spirit of munificence which has
distinguished the name of Drysdale in Buenos Aires". [E.T.Mulhall]
While these prosperous Scots were highly conscious of
their origins, they shared with their other British counterparts a wider
identity. Many interests bound them together, so that British institutions,
clubs, societies and masonic lodges existed as well as specifically Scottish
ones - the early British Commercial Rooms, English language newspapers such
as The Standard and The Herald, the British Philanthropic
Institution, the British Hospital, the British Cemetery and such clubs as
the Foreigners Club and later the Foreign Amateurs Race Sporting Society,
forerunner of the Jockey Club and the Hurlingham Club. A common interest in
British sports existed - cricket, polo, tennis, soccer, rugby, rowing,
sailing and horse racing - in Buenos Aires and other centres such as Bahia
Blanca, Rosario and Quilmes. And English was their preferred language; a
mark of their status and power. Looking to Britain at the height of its
imperial power for their values and their attitudes to foreigners, they
exhibited that superiority and exclusiveness that was often the hallmark of
the British overseas. However, inter-marriage and other connections with
influential Argentine families and members of other immigrant groups
broadened their base in some measure, so that the elite was defined
increasingly by wealth, status and power rather than national origins.
Landowners
In 19th century Scotland, as indeed elsewhere, the
possession of land was not only a means of living but also a measure of
one’s status in society. For the small farmer it provided a livelihood, but
for those who could afford substantial estates it was an investment, gave
higher social status, better marriage prospects and political influence.
Thus, a merchant might transform the status and power of himself and his
descendants, while at the same time diversifying his sources of income.
Consequently, it is not surprising that the Scottish commercial class in
Argentina invested in existing estancias (large estates) or obtained
land in virgin territories on the pampas. Among the early merchants of
Buenos Aires who bought estancias were Thomas Fair, John Hannah,
Thomas Drysdale, John Gibson, James Lawne and George Bell. They were
followed by many others and it became a common practice to have a business
establishment in Buenos Aires, a fine house in the suburbs of the city and
an estancia. Some acquired huge possessions on which they raised
cattle, sheep and agricultural produce. The Espartillar estancia
owned by Thomas Fair and his family eventually covered sixty square miles
and carried one hundred thousand cattle and sheep. Similarly, the Gibson
family of Glasgow and Buenos Aires had vast properties south and west of
Buenos Aires at Tuyu and Lincoln, and on National Territories on the
pampas, in Cordoba and Paraguay.
For the wealthy merchants landownership was a financial
investment, a means of combining production and trade, and a source of
relaxation and sport. At the same time, many ordinary immigrants with
farming and other skills acquired in Scotland, but little financial means,
came to the pampas in the hope of establishing themselves as
landowners. Some became very wealthy estancieros; others created smaller
farms; and the remainder became hired employees - managers, foremen,
shepherds and labourers - on the large estancias. John Hannah came
originally as an estate manager and eventually became a great landowner:
"In 1837 he purchased the Lagosta estancia, near Ranchos, which soon became
known as one of the finest cabanas (livestock farms) for prize rams in South
America. In 1863 he built the superb mansion house, at a cost of £8,000
sterl., where he dispensed hospitality on the baronial scale of the Middle
Ages. He was beloved by all the country people for miles around on account
of his munificent generosity. He possessed an accurate knowledge of the
Spanish classics, and was moreover of gentlemanly and unassuming manners".
[M.G.Mulhall] Others came out to work as shepherds on established
estancias, raising sheep on a section of the land and acquiring a
share ( Tercio) in the growing flock, which then provided the basis for
their own farm. And for those who could raise sufficient capital as
shepherds or cattlehands, there were opportunities to lease blocks of virgin
land on the pampas, in former Indian territories.
Outside Buenos Aires, Scottish communities were
established on the settled lands south of the city, attracting farmers and
shepherds. Quilmes and Chascomus were two such settlements, where Scottish
landowners encouraged others to farm and where they established Presbyterian
chapels and schools. By the 1880’s a quarter of all the principal landowners
in Chascomus were Scots, including Buchanan, Burnett, Campbell, Fair,
Grahame, Maxwell, Auld, Bruce, Grant, Johnston, Wallace, Blythman, Davidson,
Oliphant and Ross. To quote one writer: Chascomus "has been for thirty
years a favourite settlement for Scotchmen, some of whom are the richest
farmers in South America ". [M. & E. Mulhall]
In 1825 a remarkable and initially successful attempt was
made to plant a large and distinctively Scottish colony. John and William
Parish Robertson, merchants in Buenos Aires and Corrientes, promoted the
emigration on the "Symmetry" from Leith of over two hundred Scottish
men, women and children, mostly from the east and south of Scotland, to
found a colony, located at Monte Grande, south of Buenos Aires, on lands
purchased by the Robertsons. Among the colonists were male and female farm
servants, clerks, carpenters, masons, a surveyor, a doctor and a landscape
gardener. Many brought their wives and children with them.
Most of them had little idea of what lay ahead, for as
Tam o’ Stirling, the poet of the party, wrote:
‘They wondered what people the Argentines were
Savages or civilised - colour and figure;
And lassies resolved they would droon themselves ere
They’d gang without claes or be kissed by a nigger!
The Symmetry anchored, boats gathered around them,
While jabbering foreigners their luggage received;
The Babel o’ tongues was enough to confound them,
But naebody understood Scotch, they percei ved!" [Cited in
I.A.D. Stewart]
After arriving in Buenos Aires they and their goods and
implements were loaded on to bullock carts and taken to the site of the
community, where their industry soon established the basis for a prosperous
future. However, after this promising start the colony failed, a victim of
economic depression and the military conflict in 1829 between Generals Juan
Manuel de Rosas and Juan Lavalle which overran the lands of the colonists.
Most of them left for Buenos Aires and elsewhere in the province. Generally,
however, Scots immigration was a more gradual process, gathering pace over
the century and involving small groups, families or individuals who for a
variety of reasons chose to settle where others had gone before them or
headed for territories where virgin land could be acquired cheaply.
As the lands of the southern pampas were increasingly
opened up and government land grants were available, so the Buenos Aires
merchants and others established further farms and cattle or sheep stations.
Some settlers took advantage of ports on the Atlantic coast, particularly
Bahia Blanca and Carmen de Patagones. From the 1860’s onwards, Patagones, a
thriving town and free port on the Rio Negro, the southern boundary of
Buenos Aires province, became a point of entry to the fertile river valley.
George Musters wrote: "Englishmen arrive at Patagones by every steamer,
to lay down wheat as the land is very cheap and there is no fear of
Indians". [G. Musters] Among these so-called Englishmen were the Scots
brothers, Alexander and Thomas Kincaid, who were the first British settlers.
In 1866 they established the estancia Balcleuther some sixty miles west of
Patagones. The Kincaids employed a Scottish shepherd, and there were other
Scots: Adamson and MacGregor, tenants on Balcleuther; Charles Morrison, son
of a wealthy Glasgow textile manufacturer, who was in Patagones in 1868; and
two unnamed Scottish brothers who bought land in the valley to raise sheep.
Settlement on the pampas to the west of Rosario and south
of Cordoba was long hindered by the hostility of the Indians who, following
the downfall of General Rosas, had reasserted their control, attacking small
settlements, killing settlers and stealing cattle and horses. Despite this
continuing threat, settlement continued, although security as far south as
the Rio Negro was not fully established until General Roca’s campaign in the
late seventies. "The salidas de Roca penetrated deep into Indian
territory, villages were destroyed, many of the young men and women were
massacred and the remainder were dispersed". [H. S. Ferns]
Among the prominent settlers on the western pampas in the
mid-1860’s were the Bell brothers from Dunbar, who were founding members of
the community of Scots and English at Fraile Muerto, on lands beyond
Rosario. They attracted other single young men from the United Kingdom to
settle there, and Fraile Muerto grew into a substantial community, large
enough to have monthly visits from an English parson from Rosario and a
small Protestant burying ground. The original intention had been to raise
cattle and sheep, but economic circumstances caused the settlers to shift to
arable fanning. However, the uncertainties of farming in the area led to the
departure of many of the early settlers and by the 1880’s Fraile Muerto had
lost much of its pioneering character. Richard Seymour’s "Pioneering in
the Pampas" gives an excellent account of the early years. The present
town of Bell Ville is named after the founders of the settlement. Meanwhile,
expansion across the pampas south and west of Fraile Muerto continued
as plots of land were auctioned off by the government to settlers, so that
by the 1880’s landowners of various nationalities had established
themselves, amongst them some Scots.
Scots also established themselves in provinces to the
north of Buenos Aires, for example in the fertile territories of the
province of Entre Rios, lying between the rivers Parana and Uruguay, and
also in the neighbouring Banda Oriental (Uruguay). Initially, wealthy Scots
had bought estates (estancias) in these areas. In the 1860’s there were some
fifty "English" landowners reported in the department of Gualeguaychu in
Entre Rios, among them several wealthy Scots. [M & E Muthall] And in the
Banda Oriental there were estancias owned by such men as George Bell, James
T. Ramsay and James Mohr Bell. Poor immigrants seeking plots of land were
encouraged to settle, either on estancias or on local/central government
lands. For example, near the town of Concordia in Entre Rios a group of
Highlanders and others, among them Macdonalds, M’Neills, Sinclairs,
Buchanans, Frasers, were given plots of land. They called their settlement
Colonia Nueva Escocia. Their minister for many years (1866-77) was the Rev.
Lachlan M’Neill, a native of Kilmun in Argyllshire and brother of one of the
colonists, who held services in Gaelic and English. His "parish" stretched
for three hundred miles on either side of the river Uruguay, so he was
constantly on the move from one "preaching station" to another, these
usually held on estancias owned by Scots. Some of these colonists prospered
and moved to another part of the province where they established their own
estancias, giving them names such as Clyde, Kintail, Caledonia and San
Martin, the last named after the village of St. Martins in Perthshire. There
they built an interdenominational chapel and founded a cemetery. Some of
their descendants still live there and a monthly service in Spanish is held
in the chapel.
The Professionals
The growth of the Scottish commercial community in and
around Buenos Aires, coupled with increasing investment in the
infrastructure and services of Argentina, attracted numerous professionals -
ministers of the church, doctors, teachers, engineers and managers.
The early merchants promoted the establishment of the
Scots Church in Buenos Aires and other communities, having secured
guarantees under President Rivadavia and the 1825 Treaty enabling
them to develop their own religious and educational institutions. Initially
in Buenos Aires, the Scots either had to worship privately in the Church of
England or under the guidance of a Presbyterian missionary of the North
American Bible Society. However, in 1828 it was proposed to establish a
Church of Scotland chapel and appoint a permanent minister of religion. A
temporary chapel was leased and Dr. William Brown, initially minister to the
short-lived colony at Monte Grande, became the first minister. Then, in
1835 St. Andrew’s Church in Buenos Aires, the first Scottish National
Church in South America, was consecrated, followed by a second church at
Florencio Varela. The growth of rural communities stimulated the building of
further churches: St. John’s at Quilmes in 1855 and St. Andrew’s, the Rancho
Kirk, at the Adela estancia, owned by James Dodds, James Burnett and
George Bell, at Chascomus. And, much later, a minister was appointed to a
church in Bahia Blanca.
The ministers of the Church of Scotland had always had
great influence in their parishes in Scotland; they were all university
graduates and often the most learned men in their parishes. Consequently,
they were a powerful cohesive presence, active in religious and moral
affairs, strong advocates of education and promoters of charitable and
commemorative activities. Those who came to Argentina brought these
qualities with them. For example, it was said of Dr. James William Fleming,
Minister of the Scots Church in Buenos Aires from 1883 - 1925, that:
"his powers of organisation and commanding personality gained for him a
foremost place in the British community in Argentina. The Scots School, the
St. Andrew ‘s Society of the River Plate and the British Hospital owed much
to his wise guidance"4 or of Dr. James Smith, a minister in
Buenos Aires in 1850, "He was a tower of strength to Presbyterianism in
Argentina and was everywhere known as ‘Padre’ " [A. Graham-Yooll]
Since public schools in Argentina were Roman Catholic in
ethos and curriculum and used the Spanish medium, the Scots developed their
own schools. In 1826 a kindergarten school was established in Buenos Aires,
under the patronage of Thomas Fair and others. Meanwhile, Dr. William Brown,
the Scots minister, established a school at Monte Grande, and he, his wife
and a Miss Dick, a schoolmistress, started St. Andrew’s School in Buenos
Aires in 1838. It became the leading English medium school in Buenos Aires,
eventually becoming, as it is today, a bilingual, co-educational and
non-denominational college. With the continuing connection with Scotland, it
was expected that their schools in Argentina would recruit graduate
schoolmasters from Scotland. One of these was Alexander William Hutton who
became headmaster of St. Andrew’s School in 1882, where he is credited with
introducing sports into the curriculum, and later went on to found his own
English High School.
In the rural areas it was sometimes the practice of
landowners to employ so-called camp schoolmasters to teach their own
children and those of employees. Often graduates from Scotland or England,
these men were usually treated as members of the family; thus, Henry Geddes
and later Alexander M’Laren, a minister’s son from Glasgow, were employed to
teach fifteen or twenty children on the Adela estancia owned by Mr. Dodds.
And the Burnett family employed John Thompson M.D., and John Sand, a native
of Tranent, a poet and author of works on the fauna and flora of the pampas.
Doctors educated in the medical schools of Scottish
universities came to Argentina to practise their profession. Among the early
ones were George Fair, William Mair, Robert Tait, Robert Reid, John Aiston
and Andrew Dick who served as physicians to the British Hospital in Buenos
Aires and Robert Rodman who practised in Chascomus. General Rosas had
a Scottish doctor, John Crosbie, attached to his staff at the battle of
Caseros in 1852, and John Macdonald served as a surgeon to the Argentine
Army. Andrew Dick, who came to Buenos Aires in 1817, was highly esteemed as
a professor of medicine and philanthropist, founding the Academy of Medicine
in 1822, promoting the creation of the British Hospital and subsequently
serving as honorary physician and member of the board of management. He died
in 1867 and his monument stands in the Chacarita cemetery in Buenos Aires.
Many others were to follow in their footsteps later in the century.
The advent of railways in the 1860’s and their subsequent
rapid expansion throughout Argentina transformed the transport
infrastructure. Where bullock wagons and horseback had been the means of
overland communication and transport of goods from the distant pampas,
railways not only facilitated bulk transport to the ports of Buenos Aires
and elsewhere but also strengthened the unity of this vast country. By 1882
eleven railways were operating, reaching well over two thousand miles, with
nearly six thousand miles by 1890. Between 1858 and 1878 Britain invested
ten million pounds in railway construction, providing much of the capital,
locomotives and rolling stock, equipment and British coal. The construction
and operation of the railways attracted new groups of immigrants. Engineers
came from Scotland and England. In 1884 Alexander Kincaid, one of the
Kincaid brothers of the Balcleuther estancia, became locomotive
superintendent during the construction of one of these railways and later
carried out studies on behalf of the Rio Negro Salt Company for a railway
from the salt deposits to the port of San Blas. This Glasgow/Argentine
enterprise was still operating in the 1890’s according to Mulhall’s
directory, with a Kincaid as one of its principals. Robert Crawford, another
Scots engineer, was involved in the construction of the Buenos Aires
Southern Railway from Buenos Aires to Chascomus, and David Angus surveyed
and constructed lines in Argentina as well as Brazil, Chile and Paraguay.
His work in Argentina included the construction of part of the railway
between Buenos Aires and Rosario and an electric tramway between the federal
capital and La Plata. These engineers were followed by train drivers,
stationmasters, workshop staff; managers and supervisors, recruited in the
United Kingdom. Communities of railwaymen grew up near the depots and
workshops, such as those at Burzaco. At Temperley, south of Buenos Aires,
the Scots had a Presbyterian church and a cemetery at Llavallol.
Other Immigrants
However, whilst Argentina and particularly Buenos Aires
attracted merchants, landowners and professional men, these groups were only
part of the wider Scottish community. Real or imagined opportunities in this
distant land brought many others, from the skilled to the unskilled, seeking
employment. Having arrived at Buenos Aires and other ports of entry, some
moved on to the pampas to fmd employment on estancias or perhaps with
sufficient means to lease a block of land on which to build a crude shelter,
grow crops or raise animals. Not all realised their hopes, some drifting
back to Buenos Aires to find what work they could or re-emigrating. Others
made Buenos Aires their goal, with or without any guarantee of employment,
perhaps seeking work in shops, offices or in trades. Again, some prospered,
while others could only find menial employment. These immigrants had little
in common with the wealthy and professional sections of the community except
their language, religion and Scottishness. Information from censuses is very
limited, but data on ninety Scots in the 1869 census for Buenos Aires show
half of them were manual working class, tradesmen, labourers, servants,
waiters and cooks, and a third were non-manual workers, mainly clerks and
shop assistants. These different socio-occupational groups, from the rich to
the unskilled labourers formed a diverse Scottish community in the city,
living in different areas and following distinctive lives.
Scots in Argentine and Chilean Patagonia
South of the Rio Negro, the boundary of the province of
Buenos Aires, lay the great plains, mountains and rivers of Patagonia and
Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost part — Patagonia Austral - divided
between Argentina and Chile, and occupied by semi-nomadic Indians; a
thousand miles of territory covering half a million square miles and a
quarter of the eventual land mass of Argentina In the preceding centuries
Patagonia had exercised a fascination for the European sailors who had
travelled along its coasts and the occasional explorers and naturalists who
had entered its rivers; a land which had generated legends of giants,
monsters and a city of gold in its mountains. However, the truth was no less
striking; a vast landscape, harsh, windswept and often hostile, with fertile
plains intermixed with barren areas scoured by ancient glaciers, rivers
running from the mountains to the Atlantic seaboard, forests and an
abundance of wildlife — fish, seals, whales in the seas and herds of
guanacos and rheas on the plains. However, it was not until George Musters
in 1869 travelled with a band of Tehuelche Indians from south to north, a
journey of one thousand miles, that a remarkable picture emerged of the
interior and of the life of the Indian people, a way of life that had
disintegrated by the end of the century under the impact of settlement and
sheep farming, and disease. Musters’ journey ended on the Rio Negro, where
he visited the Kincaids at Balcleuther (the settlement on the Clyde!)
estancia before proceeding down river to the frontier town of Patagones,
looking across to the small settlement of Viedma and the empty landscape
beyond.
Writing about the Kincaid’s property in the 1875 edition
of their directory, the Mulhalls say:
"The fine estancia of Balcleuther belongs to Messrs.
Kincaid, the first English settlers on the Rio Negro, who came hither in
1866 with sheep from Azul, and may be considered as the founders of this
thriving little Colony. The estancia is azotea, brick-built, like an English
farmhouse, with all the appointments of farm sheds, Howard’s machinery,
corrals made of willow and poplar, and some seven thousand sheep. Farm lots
on the estancia, which is 2 square leagues or 13,000 acres in extent, are
held by Captain McGregor (late 93rd Highlanders), the brothers Buckland, Mr.
Adamson and a Welsh family named Wilson, whose wheat crops this year will
make up an aggregate of 600 fanegas. Some of these tenants are only three
years established here. Messrs. Kincaid’s house is about 18 leagues from the
town, at a bend of the river, and on the opposite or south bank they have a
Pulperia or camp store for Indian trade: this is in charge of the Cacique
Hernandez, who has an Indian family around him and keeps two boats for
crossing over to the estancia, the river here being about 200 yards wide."
[M.& E. Mulhall]
Preoccupied with the political and economic affairs of
the established provinces of Argentina and expansion into the territories
north of the Rio Negro, governments in Buenos Aires had had little
involvement in their Patagonian territories. Moreover, the landscape and
climate led some to believe that extensive settlement would be unlikely. The
1875 Mulhall Directory observes that "Serious efforts at colonisation
must always fail in these parts" and "Patagonia will probably be
unpopulated for centuries ". [M.& E. Mulhall]
They were quite wrong! Certainly, until the 1880’s there were few settlers
other than a Welsh colony that had been established in the Chubut valley in
1865, where some of their descendants live to this day. Substantial
settlement by Scots and other foreigners did not come until there was
government promotion of land grants, coupled with awareness of the potential
for sheep farming. However, by 1900 the southern Patagonian province of
Santa Cruz had a major sheep-rearing industry, vast estancias and a
sizeable population of British and other immigrants. Similar development of
the Chilean territories in southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego was
taking place, with Punta Arenas, a port and former convict settlement on the
Magellan Straits, one of the flourishing centres for their sheep industry.
The Scots who came to Patagonia Austral from the 1880’s
onwards had no connections with the merchant class of Buenos Aires or the
landowners of the settled provinces. They had little or no wealth and most
of them came from crafting communities in the Hebrides and Highlands or the
Scottish Borders. All of them had gained past experience as shepherds and
those from the Hebrides brought with them the Gaelic language and its
traditions. William Halliday was one of the pioneers of sheep farming and
the first foreign settler on the plains by the Rio Gallegos. Born in the
Scottish Borders, he had been recruited by the Falkland Islands Company to
work on one of their sheep stations. He prospered and married while he was
in the Falklands/Malvinas, but there was no opportunity to buy his own sheep
farm, so he contemplated moving to Patagonia where he knew the Argentine
Government was leasing land. At that time, 1884, Argentina had established a
real administrative presence in Patagonia. The Governor of the new province
of Santa Cruz, Carlos Moyana, whose wife came from the Malvinas/Falklands,
encouraged shepherds to move. As a result; Halliday leased thirty thousand
acres on the land north of the Rio Gallegos and he and his family settled
there. His estancia at Hill Station became one of the great success
stories of sheep farming in Patagonia.
The connection with the Malvinas/Falkiands led to other
Scots following Halliday’s example, among them William Douglas, William
MacCall, George MacGeorge, John Hamilton, William Blain and John Rudd.
Others then came directly from Scotland, among them William Ness, John
Tweedie, John Scott, John Macleod, John MacLean, Alexander Finlayson and
William and Donald Bain. Among the Scots who came - some eventually
returning home and others staying permanently - were men with shepherding
skills from the Hebrides. The people of these islands, such as Lewis and
Harris, had a long tradition of emigration, mostly to North America. Changes
in land use, over-population in small crofting communities and lack of
employment opportunities encouraged many to leave, either to find employment
in the industrial cities or overseas. And, coming from a landscape and
climate not unlike Patagonia they were well-equipped for the harsh life on
the distant plains. Through word of mouth or correspondence with shepherds
who had been to Patagonia, a close relationship developed between Patagonia
and people in some of the crofting communities. One instance was the
connection with the parish of Lochs in Lewis, where the parish minister
fostered the link through speaking to his parishioners and writing
references for those seeking work in Patagonia.
A major employer of Scottish shepherds was the Sociedad
Anonina Explotadora de Tierra del Fuego, a Chilean/British company. The SETF
had vast sheep ranches and processing facilities in both Chile and
Argentina, employing men on contract, some of whom returned home after
several years while others stayed on with the Company or branched out on
their own as sheep farmers or shepherds.
As mentioned earlier, the connection continued well into
the 20th century and there are people in Lewis and Harris today who recall
the stories of their forebears who travelled to Patagonia Austral, taking
with them the shepherds’ essential assistants, their dogs! Records show over
two hundred Lewismen who went there: Macdonalds, Morrisons, Macleods,
Mackenzies, MacAulays, Finlaysons and others, men from the clan groups that
had inhabited Lewis for centuries. These Lewismen were Gaels, steeped in
Gaelic traditions in poetry, storytelling and the music of the bagpipes. In
distant Patagonia they continued to use Gaelic among themselves, wrote songs
and poems about their experiences and kept strong connections with family in
the Western Isles.
Initially, life in Patagonia was particularly harsh. The
Hallidays, for example, lost many of their possessions on landing on the
deserted northern bank of the Rio Gallegos and began life there in a rough
shelter. They had no neighbours other than a few Tehuelche Indians, who
helped them to acquire hunting and riding skills. The nearest settler was
sixty miles away, and William had to drive his first flock of sheep from a
far distant estancia near the Straits of Magellan. The story of the
Hallidays and their rise to success has been published. Less well known is
the unpublished journal of William Blain, a shepherd from Dumfriesshire who
worked for the Falkland Islands Company before moving to estancias in
Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. The journal provides a detailed account of
the life of a shepherd; the daily duties, living conditions, the climate,
the people he met, their social lives, hunting expeditions and contacts with
Indians. He mentions other Scots: ‘five Scotchmen came to the house
"; Mr. McCrae near Cabo Virgenes gave me a bottle of whisky" [W.
Blain] and there are mentions of a Halliday, Campbell, Gillies and
Jamieson. Blain preferred to work as a shepherd rather than own an estancia,
moving from one estate to another on the mainland and Tierra del Fuego and
eventually returning to Scotland.
Some of the Scots who went to Patagonia remained
shepherds while they were there. Others leased or bought land and developed
estancias. The 1895 Santa Cruz census shows that about forty percent of the
foreign settlers were Scots, of whom thirty percent were described as
estancieros (landowners), another thirty percent as peones (labourers), ten
percent ovejeros (shepherds) and the remainder a miscellaneous group of
managers and foremen, a cook and so forth. Some men had wives and families
with them, but a much larger number were bachelors.
As mentioned earlier, life was difficult for the
pioneers. The flocks of sheep were vulnerable to winter blizzards, diseases
and the depredations of pumas. Families were often remote from neighbours,
sources of provisions and medical services. And, there were difficulties in
exporting wool, since in the early days they were dependent on ships calling
occasionally. However, by 1888 they were able to sell wool and sheepskins
directly to British merchants, with ships belonging to the Glasgow
companies, Thom and Cameron and Spearing and Waldron, calling annually at
Rio Gallegos and other Patagonian ports. Refrigerator ships and, later, the
opening of a freezing plant in 1894, made possible the export of mutton as
well as wool. Many of the estancieros - Scots, English and others -
prospered, built fine homes furnished with goods from Buenos Aires and
Britain, sent their children away to school in Buenos Aires or Britain and,
as numbers grew, had a wide circle of friends. And, inevitably, the Scots
and English took their "institutions" - clubs, societies and sports - with
them, founding, for example, a British Club in the growing port of Rio
Gallegos which still exists and houses a plaque bearing the names of over
three hundred "gringos" who came to the area.
Wives and Mothers.
Any account of Scots in Argentina would be fundamentally
incomplete without recognising the role of women in the development of the
community, not only because they shared the uncertainties and hazards of
life in an alien land but also because of the influence they had as wives
and parents on domestic and social activities and values. Among the early
settlers there was a minority of women, and while this situation changed
substantially over the century in Buenos Aires and the more settled
provinces it persisted in Patagoma Austral into the last decade, where the
1895 census for the province of Santa Cruz reveals a ratio of three men to
one woman among the identifiable Scots.
Scotswomen arrived in Argentina in various ways. Some
came with their husbands, others were relatives and family friends invited
out, while yet others came as unmarried farm and domestic servants, teachers
and governesses and were snapped up by bachelor Scots and others. Little
general information is available on their numbers and backgrounds, but there
is some illustrative information. Among the early bachelor members of the
merchant community of Buenos Aires most marriages were contracted with Scots
or English women, either arrivals from Britain or the daughters of other
Scots immigrants. Of the farmhands and artisans who sailed on the
Symmetry from Leith in 1825 to found the Scots colony at Monte Grande, a
third were wives or single women, and there were also numerous daughters.
Subsequently, marriages were contracted between some of the bachelors and
the single women and the older daughters.
As the century progressed and more single women
immigrants and second generation daughters increased the Anglo-Scots
community, so in-group marriage flourished. Thus, of one hundred and forty
six proclamations of marriage recorded at the British consulate in Buenos
Aires between 1855 and 1866, four fifths were between Britons and only a
tenth between Britons and Argentines. The Scots in this record showed the
same proportion. Also, some data from censuses in 1869 and 1895 in Buenos
Aires show that in-group marriages predominated later in the century, two
thirds of British men and three quarters of women marrying within their
community. Few of the remaining women married Argentines, tending to choose
men from other immigrant groups from Europe. In these respects they differed
little from other immigrant communities, where parental attitudes and
cultural factors similarly encouraged in-group marriages.
The predominantly domestic role of women in Scottish
society in Argentina had great significance. Since they were largely
restricted to running the home, child-bearing and the upbringing of
children, socialised largely among their own kind and lacked many of the
cultural and working contacts that their husbands had with Argentines, they
reinforced traditional values and practices of their in-group, and as such
strengthened the sense of a British community positioned apart from others.
Some, of course, found self-expression beyond domestic roles in charitable
activities and a few in professional work, for example, Dr. Cecilia Grierson
who was well-known for her medical work and now, long after her death, has a
street in Buenos Aires named after her.
Those who lived, married and
had families in prosperous urban communities were typically the more
fortunate, since they had British neighbours and friends, comfortable homes,
access to medical and educational services for themselves and their
children, and servants to do domestic duties. Life in Buenos Aires was
particularly attractive. Described by a speaker at a St. Andrew’s Society
dinner in the 1890’s as "The Paris of South America" [St. Andrew’s Gazette],
the city displayed European tastes whether in its civic architecture,
cultural activities, attractive suburbs, clubs and societies or the latest
fashions in dress and manners. It offered middle-class and professional
families a lifestyle as good and sometimes far better than many could have
expected in their homeland.
The lives of women and their
families in rural areas varied considerably. Those who were settled in
established and developed parts of the "camp" had the benefits of community
support, English-speaking neighbours and at least some basic services,
although living conditions might be initially primitive and there were the
heavy demands of domestic work, self-sufficiency, child-rearing and
assistance with farming. Life was more difficult and hazardous for those
families who moved deeper into the plains, settling on the Indian frontier,
in former Indian territories, or were pioneers in Patagonia Austral. Social
isolation, remoteness from medical and other assistance, primitive
dwellings, and the possibilities of Indian incursions or crop failures,
called for courage and determination. In all these circumstances some
families prospered, even became very wealthy, building fine homes furnished
with goods from Buenos Aires or Britain, enjoying visits to Buenos Aires and
Europe, sending their children away to private schools and, as communities
grew, participating in many social activities. For many, however, modest
homes, demanding labour and remoteness from others characterised their
lives, although by the last quarter of the century improvements in services
and communications helped to improve the quality of life.
Conclusion
The preceding pages have
given an outline account of the origins and growth of the Scots and their
descendants in Argentina and Patagonia Austral in the 19th century.
Beginning with a small group of enterprising merchants who arrived in the
early 1800’s, it traces their commercial success and the way in which they
and others who followed them became important landowners and part of the
business and social elite of the cosmopolitan city of Buenos Aires. Their
strong sense of Scottish cultural and religious identity encouraged the
provision of Presbyterian churches and schools, and fostered social and
philanthropic activities which served both as a means to bond Scots together
and develop relationships with Argentines.
Apart from the wealthy merchants of
Buenos Aires, Scots from many social and occupational backgrounds were
attracted to Argentina. Some came to purchase, lease or labour on the vast
plains of the pampas, others found employment as professionals, artisans and
clerks, some were engineers and railwaymen and yet others occupied a variety
of routine and menial occupations in Buenos Aires and other cities and
towns. And, with the later development of Patagonia Austral, Scottish
shepherds, either direct from home or via the Falklands/Malvinas, created an
important community of sheep ranchers, managers and shepherds.
By the
end of the century there were several
thousand male and female Scots and their descendants in Argentina and
Patagonia Austral. They had their origins in all parts of Scotland and
worked in all sectors of the Argentine economy, but whatever their
backgrounds they kept alive their identity as Scots. They are remembered
today in many ways; by their names on gravestones and in obituaries,
censuses and vital records; their churches, and St. Andrew’s College in
Buenos Aires; and not least, in Scottish family recollections of distant
forebears, the family trees of Argentines with Scottish ancestors and even
in the familiar surnames in current telephone directories. |
