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After the French withdrew from Port Louis in 1767 the cattle and horses they left behind went wild and multiplied rapidly on East Falkland. In March 1846 Samuel Fisher Lafone signed a contract in London which gave him the sole rights to the wild cattle in the southern half of East Falkland, now known as Lafonia.
On the instructions of Lafone a settlement for processing the cattle (salt beef, hides, hair and tallow) was founded at Hope Place, Saladero (salting place) opposite Cantera House and separated by Brenton Loch, and a 500m wide stretch of water. Hope Place was right beside the loch on a small tongue of flat land projecting into the loch. Lafone already had a similar enterprise in South America and in 1847 102 men, some with families totalling 117 people, which included Lafone’s agents Martinez and Williams and 15 horses arrived in the islands. There were gauchos and labourers with prefabricated timber buildings and stores for the settlement. By August 1849 Lafone reported that they had erected a saladero (salting place) and had two large vats for steaming purposes, and a fair stock of horses.
A list of people on Mr Lafone’s estate dated 12 July 1851 contains 32 names at Hope Place and a further group at 2nd Corral. A list of Aliens contained 25 men’s names, of whom twenty were at Hope Place, all but two Patagonians being from Montevideo some with dependents. There were three Pitalugas (Gibralter), one young Manuel Coronel- Falkland Islands nationality and eight of these twenty gauchos had wives and young children. They would have presumably all, or nearly all , have been Hope Place gauchos. (Lafone reneged on promises to take English settlers to the colony, preferring Indians and Spaniards from South America; on reflection this was probably a wise decision as they would have been far more skilled in cattle and doing the dangerous work). The Hope Place gauchos were chosen for their 'more professional work and intelligence' and their capabilities at stone corral and other construction work. Andrez Pitaluga who went on to take out leases on Salvador, Rincon Grande and other north camp sections was married to Margaret McIntosh Edwards at Hope Place in 1850 or 1851. He was capataz (foreman) of the gauchos.
The enterprise soon ran into debt and in January 1851 a company was formed to purchase Lafones’ rights and interests in the islands. Lafone was a major shareholder in the new company, the Falkland Islands Company, its objectives the taming of wild cattle, the development of farming sheep and establishment of a general store. John Dale, his brother-in-law, was appointed the Company’s first Colonial Manager and in 1852 arrived with his wife and son. The same ship brought his two servants, two joiners, a shepherd (Saunders Gervais) and a mason and his wife (Mr Cosworth), also from on the vessel was Don Lorenzo the capitaz and John Gregor Belardi.Hope Place was the main killing ground of cattle. Nothing was wasted. Hides were dried or salted, beef was salted and by-products hair, horns and bones were prepared and shipped by boat to Stanley. Some wild cattle were tamed and kept for breeding and domestic use. |
Hope Place had turf banks and corrals, a main corral and with a smaller enclosed corral, possibly used for gearing up horses. The settlement itself was enclosed by turf walls forming a substantial enclosure. The cattle were driven in from camp down funnel shaped banks into the corrals. It is known that the settlement at Hope Place had a store (repeatedly damaged by rats in 1858) which sold flour, sugar, tea, coffee, tobacco, matches, knives and other staple goods; a salt house, a stable, a fowl house and a large stone building, the stone Galpon, used for sheep and rendering down tallow. There was very likely a number of wooden dwelling houses, including a stone house, the stone possibly was ferried across from Cantera (quarry) on the opposite shore of Brenton Loch. The pencil drawing by William Dale of 1852 shows a spacious house that was probably the Camp Manager’s dwelling.
In 1855 Havers, (a Colonial Manager) reported that the buildings at Hope Place were ‘scattered about over a great deal of ground without any regard to plan, convenience or economy.’ ‘The buildings are nearly all constructed from the Robert Fulton wreck. They are rough and ill-built.’ Water had to be rolled in barrels a considerable distance.’
By 1859 the buildings at Hope Place had been removed to the new and more convenient site at Darwin but the corrals remained, a ‘rodeo ground’ where the cattle were periodically collected and managed. |
Illustrations Copyright Dale Family
