He was the first to hold official positions in the colony: secretary to the council , secretary to the Welsh courts , postmaster , registrar , and schoolmaster , and was also the colony's first postmaster under the Argentine Government and private secretary to the first governor , but was imprisoned in 1882-3 for organizing an agitation to secure the rights of the Welsh colonists .

In 1868 he edited and published Y Brut , a manuscript monthly. In 1878 , with the help of Thomas Pugh , a young man from Llandderfel , he published Gwerslyfr i ddysgu darllen Cymraeg (a Welsh reader). This was the first book printed in the colony and the first Welsh book to be printed in South America ; a revised and enlarged edition was published in 1881 . He continued to publish almanacs for the colony yearly until 1905 . There is an article by him, ‘ Gwib i Chili ,’ in Cymru (O.M.E.) , 1905 . His articles were signed not with his name but with the sketch of a hand. He d. on Christmas Day 1917 .