daf yn hir cyn y gallaf werthu dim oddiwrth y rhai sydd genyf yn bresenol, ac hefyd yr wyf wedi colli un or ceffylau, y mae hyny wedi beri gofid mawr i mi . . . Y mae chwant arnaf i renti y lle am tua dwy flynedd, a myned yn ol i'r gwaith glo, ond nid wyf wedi penderfynu beth i wneud; eto nid oes dim lle i enill arian ond wrth ffarmo yma, ond enillaf fwy o lawer yn y gwaith glo. 30
[I am now greatly troubled by what to do; I do not have enough money to buy stock, and it will be a long time before I can sell any of the ones I have at present, and I have lost one of the horses, which has caused me much worry ... I am tempted to rent out the land for two years and go back to the coal mines, but I have not yet decided what to do; again there is no way of earning money here except by farming, but I will earn far more in the coal mines.]
How exactly Hughes resolved his dilemma will probably remain a mystery. No further letters from him appear to have been published in Tarian y Gweithiwr (or elsewhere) so he and his wife's later years are as lost to written history as are those of their friends, Hopkin and Margaret Hopkin. For both these Amman Valley families the reality of agricultural life on the American frontier turned out to be far removed from the idyllic existence many at the time believed it to be. There is no way of knowing to what extent these emigrants' experiences, with their hardships and triumphs, were typical or exceptional; most probably they were a little of both. Nevertheless, the glimpses into emigrant lives which these letters present are significant in their own right. They also stand as a vivid reminder of the extraordinary circumstances which ordinary people could find themselves in as they strove to come to terms with the new worlds they had entered.
1. Tarian y Gweithiwr, 19 December, 1879, 9 January, 7 May, 1880. English-language translations of edited extracts from these letters can be found in Alan Conway, ed., The Welsh in America: Letters from the Immigrants (Cardiff, 1961), 151-156. See also Huw Walters, 'Gair Am Y Dyddiau Gynt: Y Dyffryn ac America', South Wales Guardian, 16 September 1976. The translations used in this article are those of the authors.
2. For some biographical detail, on which most of the following paragraph is based, see Jonah Evans, Hen Gymeriadau Cwmgors ar Waun, or Flwyddyn 1840 (Brynaman, 1907?), 80; D. W. Lewis, 'Hen Gerddorion Dyffryn Aman', Amman Valley Chronicle, 28 December, 1916.
3. Evan Gethin, 'Penillion o Glod i Hopkin Hopkin am ei ymdrechion gyda'r Ysgol Gan ar Band of Hope. Buddugol yng Nghyfarfod Llenyddol Carmel [Gwauncaegurwen] Mawrth 31 ain 1860', Y Diwygiwr, August 1860, 250.
4. Huw Walters, 'Chwifio Baner Dirwest: Cenhadaeth Dafydd Daniel Amos' in Geraint H. Jenkins, gol., Cof Cenedl, V (Llandysul, 1990), 85-115, 108-113. See also Rhidian Griffiths, 'Dau Gor' in Hywel Teifi Edwards, gol., Cwm Tawe (Llandysul, 1993), 188-210; Selwyn Jones, 'Ivander Griffiths and the Eisteddfod Abroad', Planet 2 (1970), 60-64; T. J. Morgan, 'Cymdeithas Gorawl Dyffryn Tawe', Y Traethodydd 127 (1972), 223-29.
5. D. W. Lewis, loc. cit..
6. Jonah Evans, loc. cit., 80.
7. Y Gwladgarwr, 24 October, 1879.
8. For a discussion of poets who left the Amman Valley and Wales and settled in England and overseas see Huw Walters, Canu'r Pwll ar Pwlpud: Portread o'r Diwylliant Barddol Cymraeg yn Nyffryn Aman (Cyhoeddiadau Barddas, 1987), 110-111, 214-216. See also, for a discussion of the same phenomenon in Monmouthshire, Sian Rhiannon Williams, Oes y Byd i'r Iaith Gymraeg: y Gymraeg yn ardal ddiwydiannol Sir Fynwy yn y bedwaredd ganrif ar bymtheg (Cardiff, 1991), 23-27.
9. D. W Lewis, loc. cit..
10. See, for example, Aberdare Times, 27 September, 1879; Baner ac Amserau Cymru, 12 July, 23 August, 1 October, 1879, and the very numerous reports in Y Gwladgarwr and Tarian y Gweithiwr, April -September, 1879.
11. See, for example, Baner ac Amserau Cymru, 3 September, 1879; Y Gwladgarwr, 19, 26 September, 3, 17, 10, 24 October, 1879; Merthyr Telegraph, 22 August, 1879. For New Cambria and Jacksbor