 rise, too, because of the labour shortage caused by their departure. 13 Subscriptions to the scheme were to pay for the nucleus of a Welsh agricultural settlement to be established at New Philadelphia, around sixty miles south-west of Houston, Texas, to be followed within five years by a large-scale migration of over a thousand workers a month. The society's entrance fee was 1s and any member was entitled to take part in a prize drawing on making a contribution of £5. Those selected were sent to America with £150, which was to be repaid in ten years with interest. 14
The plan attracted frenzied interest all over the industrial valleys of south Wales during 1879. Indeed it is no exaggeration to say that nearly every issue of Tarian y Gweithiwr during 1879 contains at least one item of commentary or report on the scheme's conditions and progress. 15 As early as the middle of February, such was the number of requests for information that Mabon was receiving personally that he curtly reminded Tarian y Gweithiwr readers he could not 'codi stamps fel y codir ceryg o'r heol' [get stamps like you can lift stones from the road], and refused to answer any more queries unless they were accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope. 16 Numerous lectures were delivered on the subject and a number of local branches of the Texas Emigration Society or Workmen's Emigration Society (as the enterprise was popularly known), were formed, especially in the Rhondda Valleys where there were six branches. At the end of April, Mabon came to lecture on the scheme and Texas generally at a well-attended meeting in Gwauncaegurwen and a branch of the society was established here also. 17 Was Hopkin Hopkin there at the meeting, one wonders, or did he hear about it afterwards? But he clearly enrolled as a member and paid his dues for in August 1879 it was announced that his family was one of the two from south Wales who had been selected to be part of the first group to go to Texas. The other was that of George and Catherine Davies of Ton Pentre, Rhondda. 18 These two families did indeed reach Texas under the auspices of the society, but either because of organisational failure, incompetence or malpractice, or a combination of all three, the whole scheme turned into an utter fiasco. This promptly killed the emigration society and with it Mabon's advocacy of emigration as a solution to industrial problems. As Alan Conway has emphasised, this was in fact the last serious attempt to promote large-scale emigration by organised societies in Wales. 19
The Hopkin letters back to Wales trace in rich detail the changing nature of the family's fortunes between October 1879 and April 1880. The letters were addressed to relatives and friends in Wales, who probably sent them on to Tarian y Gweithiwr, it being common practice at the time for such letters to be sent to newspapers. Even so, there is something of a mystery here, as according to the Gwladgarwr report of the farewell meeting, Hopkin Hopkin intended to send that paper an account of his journey, together with information on Texas. In a statement which fully reveals both the extent of contemporary interest in that state, and concern about the misinformation about it that was in circulation, the Gwladgarwr was keen to have Hopkin's reports because 'as he is a religious and truthful man, we can expect to have accurate information on the state which has been so much written about and argued over lately'. 20 But on this occasion, at least, it would appear that Hopkin did not keep his word - or maybe his friends in the Amman Valley decided to send his bulletins to the rival Tarian y Gweithiwr.
The first letter was dated 21 November and published on 19 December 1879. It records how the family left Brynaman railway station on 16 October 1879 (including expressing thanks to Mr Price the station master for his help with their travel arrangements) and travelled to London, then Southampton, from where the steamer sailed the following evening. They finally arrived in New Philadelphia on 10 November 1879, after further ra