Many thanks to Petite123123 for reviewing this for geographical plausibility...
Part 6 - Thalassa! Thalassa!
New Wales
Y Cyfeiryddion (The Guides)
History - By tradition the Guides are the oldest unit of the Patagonian army, claiming descent from those men who in the earliest years of the Welsh colony set out to explore the lands beyond the initial area of settlement. Guides it is said were the first Welshmen to see the Pacific Ocean and penetrate the deep south, and have taken part in all campaigns in which Patagonians have taken part. Also by tradition, from their earliest days the guides have incorporated members of Patagonia’s native tribes….
From "A Dictionary of the World’s Special Forces", Col. Joseph Michaels, US Army (Rtd). 3rd Edition, 1983
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By the early 1820’s, it was obvious to all that the Colony was running out of land in the lower Camwy basin. Even the most industrious network of irrigation canals could not overcome the fact that just over thirty miles upriver from Trewatcyn the Salt Lands began, where nitrate contamination made the soils useless for agriculture.
Other shortages were biting too - the lack of timber in the lower valley in particular was critical - and demand was growing for additional land. Ever since the colony had first been settled of course men had ridden out into the desert in an attempt to map the country round about and find suitable places to settle. Apart from the - very - occasional oasis they were out of luck, and not all of them came back. Realising a more organised effort was needed, a consortium of some of the wealthier men of the colony came together and approached the Company offices with a proposal to fund an expedition to find an overland route to the Andes Mountains and if possible the Pacific Ocean suitable for colonists to travel. As their representative on the expedition, the company nominated a retired army officer, Captain Peter Edwards, who as a trained military surveyor with Peninsular War experience would be able to map the route. The colonial investors for their part picked Daniel Jones, who as an 18 year old had been one of the young men who departed with the Aoniken at the end of their first visit to the colony and who had learned their language and many of their ways. Jones brought along with him his friend Kilcham, a redoubtable Aoniken hunter and guide.
On Monday the 6th of October 1823, (and a day after attending a local chapel, where the preacher had given a sermon based on Isaiah 58:11) a company of twenty men and sixty horses with surveying equipment and two month’s worth of supplies passed the final outposts of the colony and proceeded to head upriver in search of the mountains.
Six days into their journey, a man was lost when the party camped by the river and the man on watch was suddenly jumped by a puma, killing him before Captain Edwards could shoot the beast - Kilcham, not wishing to see anything go to waste, skinned the carcass and set about curing the hide before the party rode on. A week later, three horses were lost crossing the river as the crudely made raft overturned when the beasts panicked. Over the course of the next three weeks, the river led them first north then west, bringing them their first views of the snow-capped peaks of the Andes on the horizon. As the river started leading them south again, Captain Edwards consulted with Jones and Kilcham (now proudly wearing his puma skin cloak) and proposed to strike out across country for the mountains. After another five days of riding, the party crossed a ridgeline on mid-day on November 14th and stopped in awe as they looked down on a valley more lush and green than anything they’d seen since leaving Wales years before. Jones spoke first - “Rwan’te - hynny yw’n olygfa gartrefol, yntefe?” (“Now then, that's a homely sight, isn't it?”) From which the valley would be marked on maps as Dyffryn Gartrefol, the Homely Valley.
The party spent another five days exploring the valley and replenishing their supplies through gathering the wild fruits that grew in abundance and trading with the Aoniken groups that inhabited the valley during the summer - axes and knives for guanaco jerky and dried fish from the many rivers - before heading off south-west along another river, which Captain Edwards judged would lead them to the ocean. At first, progress was swift, but as they descended into temperate rainforest progress slowed as undergrowth thickened around them, so that it took a further ten days to travel the fifty miles down the river to where it emptied into a great lake, surrounded by mountains. Here Captain Edwards called another halt, and proposed to leave half the men behind at the lake with the horses while the other half would sail down the lake on a raft and follow the river that exited it down to the ocean.
Edwards insisted that himself and Jones, to represent the Company and the Colony, had to lead the expedition down to the sea and Jones insisted that Kilcham should come to represent his own people. The remaining seven places were chosen by lot and the chosen men climbed on board two rafts and steered them down river. This final stage of the journey was almost anti-climactic as, after barely a day and a half of sailing, the raft found itself entering into flat lands as the flow of the river slowed to a crawl, then rounded a final bend to see the horizon in front of them suddenly open up as the deep blue of the Pacific Ocean stretched before them. Edwards suddenly shouted something in a language none of his companions understood.
“It means ‘the sea! the sea!’ you uncultured barbarian!” He replied with a broad grin on his face when Jones asked him what he was shouting.
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Author’s notes:
Isaiah 58:11 “The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.”
Dyffryn Gartrefol = OTL Cwm Hyfryd/Valle 16 de Octubre. The route followed to the Pacific is pretty much the line Futaleufu river, Lake Yelcho, Yelcho river to OTL Chaiten.