The Pirates Laffite

by William C. Davis

  Complaints of the operation began to appear in the press with increasing frequency. "The pirates, at and near the Island of Barrataria have received strong reinforcements, and if not soon dislodged, will do serious injury to any little trade that may be opened to this city," one citizen wrote to an editor in March. "Every article is sold cheap for cash—they give no credit, having no banks of discount." He complained that recently the schooner the Arrow, owned by New Orleans merchants, went out under Spanish colors in hopes of getting through the British blockade, but instead fell prey to the privateers, who then took her to Barataria and their admiralty court. Not surprisingly, its judge condemned her as a lawful prize, but afterward he came to New Orleans to buy some books on the maritime laws of nations, and while there promised the hapless owners of the schooner that if they paid the costs of "salvage" they would get their vessel back. In short, having sold the cargo at auction, and having no need for the schooner itself, the Baratarians would now ransom the boat to its owners. Sarcastically, the author commented that "the commercial people of this city must feel happy in having such accommodating neighbors."

  The writer did not name the Laffites or anyone else, though by now the Laffites' names were surely associated with the trade. But then he did not give his own name, either, wisely fearing retaliation. He simply signed himself "Prudence," but did offer to give the authorities more information "should it be deemed good policy to break up this nest of robbers." It may have been the first detailed news that New Orleanians had of the operation, whatever rumors they had heard, and it raised a new theme in complaints about the corsair merchants. By refusing to take bank notes or give credit, they were creating a shortage of hard money in the midst of the inflationary problems being caused by the war. Vincent Nolte, one of the leading merchants of the city complained that planters, mostly French Creole, went to Barataria to buy slaves at $150 to $200 each, whereas in the city legal slaves cost up to $700. The money did not leave the country, but it was believed that the agents of the smugglers hoarded it, thus withdrawing it from circulation. This argument ignored the fact that most of the corsairs spent that same specie with New Orleans merchants in buying supplies and outfitting their ships, but some remained convinced that if not stopped, the contrabandists could corner currency and dominate the economy of Louisiana. 4 Moreover, the scarcity of hard cash exacerbated partisanship between French and American citizens, as the latter blamed the former's open business dealings with the contrabandists in part for the state of virtual anarchy on the coast.5

  "Prudence" reported one more rumor, probably no more than an idle boast by a Baratarian in his cups, but worrying to the authorities in time of war. "The new government at Barrataria declare that in the Cession of Louisiana by France to the United States, this Island was not included, and in consequence thereof they have named it The hie of France." Tongue in cheek, "Prudence" suggested that the authorities send a message to the commander of the British squadron in the Gulf asking him to "look into" the rightful authority of the Baratarians, broadly hinting that if they claimed to be an outpost of Napoleon's empire, then they entitled themselves to some attention from British guns.6

  Certainly Governor Claiborne paid heed. He could not ignore the mounting complaints from the legitimate merchants of New Orleans, nor the damage the corsair merchants were doing to the local economy and to the United States, much in need of cash in time of war. He also could not ignore the diplomatic problems caused with Spain, with whom the United States was not at war. Diego Morphy, the Spanish consul in New Orleans, complained on March n that French and American privateers were taking Spanish vessels, carrying their prizes to Grand Isle, and from there smuggling their cargoes into New Orleans. He confidentially reported to his superiors that there were two hundred to three hundred Frenchmen fortified at Barataria, with fourteen cannon in place to discourage unwelcome callers. Echoing "Prudence," he said he'd heard it said in the streets that the corsairs now called their lair "New France," and were occupying Cat Island as well as Barataria. It was an open secret, he lamented, adding that "the government here is not unaware of this, but I do not know why they have not taken any provisions." He had complained repeatedly to the collector at New Orleans, warning that if the Americans did not stop this business, "the day will come when these pirates will raise the English flag attacking and capturing American ships, and they will do to them the same they do now with the Spanish." 7

  It was an embarrassment to the Union's newest state to be known as a haven for freebooters. Governor Claiborne attempted to increase the vigilance of state and federal officers alike days after Morphy's private and "Prudence's" public complaints, when on March 15 he issued a proclamation. Having learned that "a considerable Banditti composed of Individuals of different nations, have armed and equipped several Vessels for the avowed purpose of cruising on the high Seas, and committing depredations and piracies of the Vessels of Nations at peace with the United States, and carrying on an illicit trade in goods, Wares and Merchandize with the Inhabitants of this State," he said, he feared that these lawless men would eventually start to prey on citizens of Louisiana. He commanded the pirates to cease, and required civil and military officials within each of the districts to apprehend them. He also cautioned the people not to have anything to do with them or be "in any manner concerned with such high offenders." Rather, he called on citizens to aid officials in putting them down "to rescue Louisiana from the foul reproach which would attach to its character should her shores afford an assylum or her Citizens countenance, to an association of Individuals, whose practices are so subversive to all Laws human and divine, & of whose ill begotten treasure, no Man can partake, without being forever dishonored." 8

  Claiborne admitted that he did not expect the proclamation to make the smugglers disperse, but he hoped that it would excite the citizenry to boycott their sales, and impel officers of the law to be more vigilant. "As regards the principal offenders I am persuaded that nothing short of the most vigorous measures will put a stop to their evil practices and a resort to force is in my opinion indespensible," Claiborne told General Wilkinson.9 That same day the customs collector for the port of New Orleans, echoing Claiborne's plea, formally asked the army and navy for help in putting down the Baratarian smugglers. When the agents of the Laffites and others then in New Orleans learned of it that day, "Prudence" heard them say that Claiborne "has overleaped his powers." After this, interestingly and perhaps ominously, "Prudence" went silent, and was not to be heard from again.10 Both Claiborne's and the customs collector's efforts failed embarrassingly.11

  Part of the hazard posed by the corsairs was their flimsy allegiance to the United States. Certainly the Laffites felt themselves to be Frenchmen first, but loyalties were fluid, and should they choose to aid the British the privateers and the smugglers could seriously compromise the security of New Orleans and south Louisiana. Within weeks of Claiborne's proclamation, the United States marshal for the New Orleans district issued an order requiring anyone not a citizen of the city doing legitimate commerce in town to withdraw at least forty miles from the Gulf coast and tidewater areas. Those who disobeyed faced arrest. 12 Meanwhile, at least a few citizens began to share the outrage of "Prudence." In June an anonymous tip revealed that Pierre's sometime partner Robin had $10,000 worth of indigo and other goods hidden in flour barrels in the cellar of the house of Jean Baptiste Soubie on Dumaine Street.13 Part of this cache was the Laffites' share of the spoils from the Louisa Antonia, still awaiting sale. Soubie was a close associate, having been with the brothers, Jannet, Gambi, Lameson, and others in February when they looted the first prize brought in by Dorada. Now his association with the Laffites caught up with him.14

  If Claiborne expected vigorous measures from Wilkinson, he was to be disappointed. A dissatisfied Washington had ordered General Wilkinson to give up his command in New Orleans in March, but he only handed it over on June 10.15 A thoroughly unsavory character, Wilkinson was tainted with connection to the fail
ed Burr plot, and was suspected, accurately, to be in the pay of Spain as well as the United States, and serving his own interests ahead of both nations. Major General Thomas Flournoy took over the command of the 7th Military District that same June, but auguries that he would be successful were few. Though Claiborne regarded him as a man of good character, and along with Patterson, Livingston, and other leaders gave him his support, Flournoy enjoyed wretched health and had few manpower resources at hand and less money. Flournoy knew he faced an uphill struggle. "I had enemies in [New] Orleans," he would recall, mostly foreigners, "smugglers, & men engaged in illicit commerce with the enemy, supplying them with provisions &c."

  Flournoy realized that stopping them required stronger means than the law allowed. Nevertheless, when Governor Claiborne asked the general to declare martial law in New Orleans soon after he assumed the command, Flournoy thought he could do the job by less drastic means. He posted guards around town at what he thought were suitable places, and ordered that no vessels be allowed out of port without his permission. The smugglers only took this as a challenge, and quickly he learned that his foes were forging his signature on passports. He responded by ordering his officer at the Balize to search every vessel regardless of its documents. Even that did not provide much by way of security, for during the time that a British squadron lay off the Balize observing American movements, a British officer visited the city as a spy more than once, and sometimes ate in the same dining room with Flournoy. Of course the general did not know that until afterward, when he learned that others in that dining room had known the spy as an enemy officer, but said nothing. No wonder he concluded that "I was beset within & without, by spies, Traitors, & bad men."

  Among the bad men Flournoy now resolved to stop were the Laffites, wanted by the federal court and, in the case of Pierre at least, the civil court as well. The brothers appear to have stayed landsmen through the spring and summer, though Jean may have gone on cruise very occasionally. In the main he managed affairs at Barataria, and oversaw the transportation of goods up the Lafourche and other routes. Prior to his arrest order in April he dealt openly with merchants friendly to his prices, among them François Duplessis on Conti Street, Laurence Millaudon on St. Louis, and especially Leblanc and Sons, who kept their warehouse on the road to Bayou St. Jean, the route used to smuggle goods into the city from the north. Jean might remain in the city for two or three weeks at a time, and then return to Grand Isle.16 While in the city, he and Sauvinet, Beluche, Dominique, Gambi, and others "were time and again, seen walking about, publicly, in the streets of New Orleans," complained Nolte. "They had their friends and acquaintances, their depots of goods, &c., in the city, and sold, almost openly, the wares they had obtained by piracy, particularly English manufactured goods."17 The Laffites got their wares to market by night and then distributed them among the stores in town and on the levee. Men recalled them as being liberal and genial, "and only slightly demoralized by an incurable antipathy ... to revenue laws, restrictive tariffs, and other impediments to free trade." 18 After Claiborne's proclamation, the attention in the newspapers, and the arrest orders, however, neither Jean nor Pierre was able to venture into New Orleans in safety, at least openly.19

  Nevertheless, Pierre stayed at a safe location very close to the city, probably with a friend on the Bayou St. John road, and almost nightly went into town to visit Marie Villard and the children. It did not require much inquiry for Flournoy to learn of Pierre's nocturnal visits, and even of a certain night that summer when he was expected. Flournoy posted a company of soldiers to arrest Pierre during the night, but Pierre heard their approach in the street and in the little time available he opened a back window and jumped out to the courtyard, then let himself down into an open well with only his head above water. There he stayed until the soldiers moved on, after which he climbed out and got out of town. But he was not to be chased out of New Orleans or his mistress's bed so lightly. He sent a message to Flournoy informing him that he knew the general on sight, and in fact passed him undetected almost nightly when Flournoy walked home from discussions with Claiborne or Shaw. Pierre boasted that at any time he wished he had only to say the word to friends and the general would be abducted in the street or even in his quarters. According to Flournoy, Laffite capped his braggadocio by saying that "as he supposed I acted from a sense of duty, he would spare me if I would give myself no further trouble on his account.—That I had much more to fear from him, than he from me."20

  In fact, for the next several months Flournoy did not trouble himself overmuch about the smuggling operation at Barataria, because by August he was convinced by reports that the privateers had abandoned the place. One of his officers, Major Henry Peire, advised him from an outpost at "Cantonment Caminada" on the coast west of Barataria, that he believed the corsairs had moved to Cartagena, abandoning Cat Island, too. Moreover, he predicted that they would not return for fear of harassment. It was a piece of hopeless misinformation, evidence only of how lax Peire was at his job. When he went on to complain that policing the bays and bayous and hundreds of inlets with connections to New Orleans was impossible, he may have revealed his own weariness with trying. Still, acting on Peire's intelligence, Flournoy asked permission to move Peire's little company elsewhere, where they were needed. 21 Relocated closer to New Orleans, Peire was soon making seizures of brandy and wine by the barrel.22 From now on watching the Gulf Coast and the smugglers would be up to the Navy and the Revenue service.

  For the next several months, in fact, while privateers continued to bring prizes into Cat Island and Grand Isle in spite of what Major Peire said, attention refocused on Bayou Lafourche and the inland routes of transportation. Holmes's raid and Ballinger's exploration and report equipped the revenue people with enough information to try to stop the illicit trade in the middle of its course, since the navy seemed unable to curtail it at its inception on the coast. Thomas Copping, temporary customs inspector for the port of New Orleans in the absence of Thomas Williams, took his work seriously, and on July 10 ventured down the Lafourche, where he seized a pirogue loaded with goods that the occupants said came from Cat Island. The men aboard included several known associates of the Laffites whom Copping brought before the district court.23

  Meanwhile planter John Foley maintained a steady correspondence with customs officials in New Orleans, in part to report on the movements of smugglers past his plantation on the upper Lafourche, and in part to suggest that he be appointed a customs inspector so that he would be authorized to seize the goods. Wine, brandy, and a host of other things floated past his house almost daily, he wrote, and nothing came or went from the Gulf without him seeing it. 24 Armed with such information, Copping and then his successor Pierre Dubourg advised the Treasury Department in July of "the smuggling & Piratical establishment made by certain persons in defiance of the laws at & near Lake Barataria." In return they got a promise that Shaw would be instructed to cooperate with revenue officers in curtailing the trade, and were told that they should go after smuggled merchandise and slaves. The secretary of the treasury told Dubourg to ask Claiborne for help, too, then promised that if he needed more revenue cutters, he need only ask. At last someone in high authority seemed willing to commit resources to the chore, even if it was the tiny and hardly powerful Revenue Service of the Treasury Department.25 Unfortunately, they were only promises.

  Every office in Washington seemed to get reports of the smuggling operations on the Lafourche and the Gulf. Even Thomas Freeman, surveyor general of the United States and hardly a man whose official purview included concerns about contraband, heard from his old friend Walker Gilbert, customs inspector at Donaldsonville, of the state of affairs. Four or five hundred privateers occupied Cat Island and others, Gilbert said in a considerable contradiction of Major Peire's report. "They are an out lawd set," Gilbert said in August, and he feared they were going to give him trouble as he surveyed for Freeman along the Lafourche. "It is astonishing to what length this piratical bus
iness is carried on," he continued. "It would seem truly to confirm the opinion that we were free; yes free to comit the most heinous crimes with impunity. I saw a person lately from there who informed me that they have regular auctions and from eighty to one hundred persons of New Orleans attend them regularly and so anxious were those speculators to encorage the business that they had paid higher in some instances for dry goods than the New Orleans market."26

  The Laffites used several bases for hiding and transporting their wares along the route from Cat Island through the Lafourche, and paid several agents to help them. Cat Island itself was ideal. Summer hurricanes washed completely over the island, meaning it had no inhabitants but for occasional fishermen and a stubborn family of Spaniards living intermittently in a rude cabin of wattle and straw thatching.27 At the other end of the smuggling route in the Donaldsonville area the Laffites hid goods on the Viala plantation and on the land of Godefroi Dumon, employing a man variously called Martin, Morrin, or Mayronne as their local agent. This may have been the François Mayronne who owned the plantation a few miles above New Orleans where the tailrace of a sawmill ran into a bayou, allowing a route for pirogues from there down the bayou to Barataria.28 The agent was also a very large buyer of goods at Grand Isle, and almost certainly the same Mayronne who owned land in the mangrove swamps on the landward side of Grand Isle.29 Typically when one of the Laffites brought a shipment to the vicinity, Mayronne met them some distance ahead of their destination and then took them to the bank of the Lafourche opposite Donaldsonville to hide their contraband.30