The Pirates Laffite

by William C. Davis

  One reason they shared a house may have been their restricted funds, for they had to subsist on what cash they had when they fled to the German Coast. Pierre had declared bankruptcy the year before, of course, but his flight from the city and the time spent in hiding, incarceration, escape, and then fighting the invasion had forestalled his creditors. With the emergency past and the brothers accessible in the city, the specter of debt could catch up with them.

  Pierre attempted to put the best face on his new public appearance, and advertised his readiness to meet his obligations. He had declared bankruptcy, he protested, to protect himself from "exorbitant pretentious demands," but he never meant to avoid "just debts due honest creditors." Disingenuously saying that he believed he had satisfied all obligations and owed no one, he invited any who thought they had claims on him to make themselves known to him or his brother. 57

  They came forward soon enough, though the legislature's suspension of civil suit prosecution spared him payment until April. The judgment against him that had originally caused his bankruptcy came forward again, clearly unsatisfied.58 In March Pierre had to pay $264 on a debt that went back to 1810. Shortly thereafter the owner of one of the slaves that Pierre took with him when he escaped from jail filed a suit against him for refusing to return the black, and obtained a judgment against him for $400. The case would drag on to late in the year, and end with Pierre making an unsuccessful appeal to the state supreme court.59 Jean meanwhile found himself in a legal dispute over the sale of the Adventurer in Mobile as he strove to hold on to the full proceeds.60 The brothers were not in financial difficulty, to be sure, but with their sources of income interrupted, they had to watch their expenses.

  While casting about for the means to renew their fortunes, the Laffites had time to pursue an expanding friendship with Latour.61 The engineer had decided to write a book about the recent campaign, and while Jackson and many of the officers were still in New Orleans in March, Latour began interviewing them and copying documents in their files.62 In the process, he spoke with the Laffites about their role, particularly the Lockyer episode, and the brothers gave him copies of all the correspondence, which Latour would include in an appendix to the volume. Jean embellished the details somewhat in his telling, exaggerating Nicholls's monetary offer to a ridiculous $30,000 and implying that the commission he was offered was not in some insignificant militia, but that of a captain in the Royal Navy.

  This was more than a sailor telling sea stories, for there was advantage to magnifying Jean's apparent self-sacrifice in turning down the British offer. The brothers hoped to regain some of the property lost at Barataria, and the more they looked like disinterested patriots, the better their chances. Latour's book, if it appeared in time, could advance their cause. Livingston was also an enthusiastic backer of Latour's project, further binding the Laffites with Livingston peripherally.63 Interestingly enough, Latour showed his initial draft to one or both of the Laffites before it went to the translator late that spring, for the published version contained even more embellishments than the draft, and ones that would only have come from Jean.64 For his part, Latour exaggerated the importance of the Laffite-Lockyer episode and its ramifications, placing the documents given him by Jean at the beginning of the lengthy appendix, out of chronological order and in the company of documents of far greater weight.65

  Patterson and Ross had wasted no time in submitting libels to Hall's bench after returning from their September 1814 raid, and the court was as expeditious. It issued the first order for the sale of goods taken at Barataria on October 24, the proceeds to be held by the court until proper disposition could be determined.66 A month later, on November 29, Hall ordered the sale of all the vessels captured except the Dorada and the Amiable Maria, which an inspector judged to be in poor condition.67 The marshal posted an inventory of the boats and their goods at Maspero's and held the sale a week later.68 The appearance of the British soon thereafter and the closing of the court postponed further action, but when Hall resumed the bench in February the proceedings resumed with vigor.

  Immediately after Dick posted the nolle prosse findings on February 20, the court ordered the sale of seventy-four casks of perishable wine, more than seventy-seven hundred gallons. Five days later the Dorada and the Amiable Maria were ordered sold.69

  Even a claim from the Spaniard from whom the Laffites originally took the Dorada could not save her from the auction block.70 Soon thereafter the court began distributing the proceeds of the sales, and Patterson and Ross and their men started to come into large shares.71 Jean Laffite submitted depositions in cases involving what he claimed was his property, but by April 24—when Patterson won an important judgment allowing the combination of two of his major libels, each strengthening the case of the other—Laffites attorney Morel could see the direction of things.72 Morel withdrew Laffites claims and depositions.73 If they could not sway the court, perhaps they could be used to persuade some higher authority.

  Testimony continued for another three weeks before the Laffites gained their first minor success on May 13 when Hall dismissed Patterson's libel on 163 barrels of flour, 16 barrels of bread, and a barrel of rice. This did not mean, though, that the Laffites were to get the proceeds from the sale of these goods, which had already taken place, and the bench immediately decreed that all the goods in another case were condemned and their proceeds forfeited to the government.74 Three days later it added to the injury by ordering the proceeds of the sales of the Dorada and the Amiable Maria turned over to their Spanish claimants, reserving a one-third share for Patterson.75 In a few cases in which citizens at Barataria during the raid were relieved of their personal property by overzealous soldiers, the court returned it, including the doubloons taken from St. Helme and some property belonging to Dominique.76 The court even released the General Bolivar when Beluche was able to produce what appeared to be genuine papers from Cartagena.77

  The only substantial success for the Laffites came on July 12. In the preceding weeks Louis Morel had ceased acting as their counsel. He would seek a seat in the legislature within a few months, and perhaps he regarded his association with the Laffites as a political liability at the moment. Livingston represented them instead as both attorney and procurator. His political connections and personal prestige after the battle added weight to their petitions, and he seemed to entertain no concerns about being the smugglers' lawyer. Indeed, he had acted on behalf of privateers some years earlier, and now took on Gambi and Dominique as clients. Of course, Livingston was first and foremost an opportunist and entrepreneur. He had already taken an interest in the filibustering and Mexican insurgent schemes fermenting in New Orleans, and he knew that the Baratarians, especially the Laffites, had close ties to Humbert, Toledo, and the rest. Being the smugglers' attorney could, in short, be good for his purse well beyond his fees and the fat contingencies he could expect to garner if he won substantial judgments for his clients. 78

  Though Dominique and Jean Laffite were not present in court that day, Livingston acted for both in submitting and winning a judgment that ordered the marshal to pay them the net proceeds from the sale of Dominique's felucca and Laffites Fly and Wasp after the deduction of Patterson's salvage share. At the same time he recovered some of the proceeds of goods taken on Gambi's Petit Milan.79 In all of these cases Jean Laffite was prepared to support his claim for restitution on the grounds of his service to Jackson, first with the correspondence relating to the British offer, then with a list of his vessels and copies of their supposed commissions, and not least with the testimonial letter from General Jackson. These documents were not direct evidence in the cases at hand, but he had his attorney keep them ready to be produced in mitigation if necessary. Unfortunately, the bench never admitted them. Laffite would have to find somewhere else to employ their persuasions.80

  While later estimates put the value of what was lost at Barataria at half a million dollars or more, the sale of the vessels and goods yielded closer to $35,000—no
small sum at the time.81 The Dorada and the Amiable Maria between them only brought $6,890 at auction. 82 Still, every article was worth contesting, and the good news on July 12 encouraged Jean to have Livingston submit a petition for recovery of more of the merchandise. Livingston would oblige, but immediately after he got the judgment on the proceeds from the sale of the Fly and the Wasp, Jean Laffite removed himself permanently from the litigation and thereafter left it to his attorney. Collecting his award immediately, a few thousand dollars at best, he had a journey to make and a use for the money in his purse.

  TWELVE

  Spies for Spain 1815-1816

  Ho! treachery! my guards! my scimitar!

  The galleys feed the flames—and I afar!

  Accursed Dervise—these thy tidings—thou

  Some villain spy-seize cleave him—slay him now!

  WITH THE BRITISH THREAT no longer a distraction, Humbert, Toledo, and Gutiérrez had time to try to resuscitate their plan for a combined land campaign against Texas and maritime strike at Tampico. They found ardent support in what Morphy and others referred to as an "association" of men in New Orleans bent on gaining personal profit through encouraging assaults on Spanish property. Never a formal organization, the "association" had a fluid membership in which the constants were Livingston, Davezac, Grymes, Abner Duncan, Nolte, Lafon, merchant John K. West, and of course the Laffite brothers. While most provided financial backing as their investment, the Laffites' contribution was to be transportation. Only now they did not have a fleet.

  While the bumptious Humbert published an announcement of the plan's renewal and tried to enlist volunteers in distant Kentucky, Toledo turned his attention, as he had the year before, to the currently ascendant party in the peripatetic insurgent Congress in Mexico. On February 10 he wrote to them saying that he had four hundred men in hand, and another two thousand could be raised. If the Congress funded the enterprise, he could lead these men in a campaign to help drive the Spaniards out of Mexico. At the same time, he suggested that the Congress supply him with letters of marque to commission privateers. There would be plenty of applicants. Tampico or some other point should be opened as a port for steady traffic with New Orleans, and a court of admiralty established to take care of the prickly matter of legalizing prizes. The Congress should send a minister to conclude a treaty of amity with the United States. Most of all, the Congress should send money, lots of it, to make everything happen. 1

  As was typical of the cross-purposes and conflicting ambitions that crippled almost all of these enterprises, Anaya had his own agendum. Anaya had shifted his support to the failed filibuster John H. Robinson's dream of leading an invasion of Texas, and Toledo feared that Anaya was collecting "some bloodthirsty adventurers from Barataria, who have bought a vessel," intending to seize any patriot funds they could get their hands on under the pretext of buying arms.2 They would be competing with Toledo for Mexican financial support and attention.

  It is ironic that Toledo complained about Anaya's courting of "bloodthirsty adventurers from Barataria," for Toledo turned to that very resource. Before his plans could be launched, he had to get his plea to the Congress, and that required a ship. General Jackson, however, refused to let vessels leave port. Anxious not to see privateering restart and not overly trusting of his recent allies, the general held up almost all departures during January and February 1815. Gambi's Petit Milan had been taken at Barataria, and subsequently sold to West and renamed the Aguila or Eagle3 Coincidentally, the day that Toledo wrote to the Mexican Congress, word of the peace treaty with Britain reached New Orleans. Immediately Toledo applied for permission to take the Eagle to Nautla, ostensibly to carry passengers belonging to, and dispatches for, the revolutionary government, and to return with specie for Toledo's use. People of good reputation endorsed his request, and Toledo affirmed in writing that the voyage had no object other than what he declared, and specifically "no intent to commit hostilities against Spain or her subjects." Further, "no arms should be put on board." On that basis, Jackson approved the request. 4

  Toledo's indictment for violating the neutrality law was outstanding, and Dick did not enter the government's nolle prosse in his case until February 20. Toledo had been free on his own recognizance and a posted bond since he volunteered to join in the defense of New Orleans.5 When Toledo first came to New Orleans, the inhabitants greeted him as a man who "risked every thing, to engage in the perilous task of freeing his countrymen from the yoke that bowed them to the earth." Dick saw that "every eye met him with friendly gratulation; every liberal heart was open to receive him." Recent setbacks to his cause only made Toledo more admired, and when he showed credentials from the Supreme Congress in Mexico identifying him as "generalissimo of the army of the north," people received him as such.

  Dick could not conceal his mistrust of the fellow, however. "From the first moment of our knowledge of General Toledo, it was obvious, to those who considered at all the extent of his qualifications, that they were entirely inadequate to his station, that his mental resources were few, when the difficulties he had to overcome required them to be multitudinous," said Dick. It was no secret that the insurgent Congress in Mexico had revoked Toledo's commission when he fled with Anaya and Humbert the previous year, and since then he had done nothing but stay in New Orleans trying unsuccessfully to regain his lost power. The Mexican junta might have used him occasionally as an agent in New Orleans simply because he was there, but he had no authority and Dick doubted that he enjoyed the confidence of genuine higher-ups. The attorney knew most of the important people connected with the failed Gutiérrez-Magee expedition of 1813, and to him they uniformly attributed their defeat "to the incapacity and mismanagement of Toledo."

  Dick, himself sympathetic to the independence movements that Toledo espoused, concluded his appraisal of Toledo's fitness to command by saying that "he has neither capacity to plan nor ability to execute; he is incapable of discovering expedients for each exigency or of providing remedies for each disorder; he can have neither dexterity in his means, nor flexibility in varying his measures, without altering his designs." Ultimately, said Dick, "he wants energy, he wants the means of inspiring confidence, and what is worse, I fear he wants integrity." As if it needed saying, he added, "I think him capable of deception and falsehood," and Toledo would immediately prove Dick to be right.6 Nevertheless, Toledo was able to inspire enough confidence in the "association" for West to lend his ship to Toledo's mission. Toledo's assurances of large amounts of Mexican gold likely helped West take the risk.

  To captain the Eagle, West engaged Julius Caesar Amigoni, formerly master of the privateer Esperanza, itself a prize Amigoni had taken with a corsair out of Barataría the year before.7 "This Amigoni is well known as an associate of the Baratarian Pirates or smugglers," the district attorney attested.8 Toledo began boarding some twenty or more crewmen on February 17, and finished fitting out the ship the next day. On February 18 Amigoni cleared the Eagle out of the port with half a dozen passengers, supposedly bound for Nautla.9 Instead, she went straight to Grand Isle.

  There Amigoni met Vincent Gambi and Colonel Bean, who had secreted on several oyster boats goods including two six-pounder cannon formerly on the Petit Milan, twenty muskets, cutlasses, and gunpowder.10 The men got past the soldier guard at the Temple by exhibiting a forged pass from Jackson, which Gambi said he had obtained from Livingston. Gambi even removed some of the obstructions that Jackson had ordered placed in the bayous to impede an enemy advance, an action that made Jackson furious when he learned of it early in March as the peace treaty had not yet been ratified. 11

  They had their stories ready. Bean was to say that the two cannon were a gift from him to Amigoni, intended to become fieldpieces. Gambi was to maintain that he was merely a passenger, going to Mexico to settle, notwithstanding the saber and pair of pistols he wore. In fact he replaced Amigoni as captain, and found a nine-pounder hidden in the hold under the ballast and another small pivot gun ready for mount
ing on deck.12 After several days spent mounting the guns and loading other weapons and munitions, the Eagle made sail once again on February 22, fully equipped as a corsair.13 With no commission, anything she took made her a pirate.

  Thanks to calm winds, almost two weeks passed before they made Boquilla de Piedras, a simple open point on the Mexican coast with a good anchorage. There they learned that Nautla had fallen to the Spaniards, meaning the port was closed to them.14 Gambi landed the passengers and one of them went some thirty miles into the interior on a pirogue, looking for the insurgent Congress. He returned the next day with twenty or more men from Dominique's crew of the Tigre and a packet for Amigoni. Amigoni told the Eagle's crew he had been given a commission as a captain in the Mexican navy and papers for the Eagle to cruise as a privateer.15 In fact, he had been handed several blank commissions to distribute to corsairs in Louisiana.16 There was also a general's commission for Toledo, signed by insurgent leader Rayon.17 Dominique's former crew members brought muskets and barrels of powder, which they quickly loaded aboard the Eagle.18 Bean's cannon were not landed, and probably were never meant to be. They would be used to arm the first prize taken by the Eagle.19

  Once the representatives from the Congress had left, the Eagle set sail again, clearly on a cruise. Gambi had gone to a house ashore, feeling unwell, before the pirogue returned from the interior, and Amigoni now commanded.20 Less than a week after leaving Boquilla de Piedras, the Eagle returned with a prize, the schooner Santa Rita out of Campeche, loaded with salt and dry goods, cargo, and a vessel worth $20,000.21 Gambi promptly took over the schooner and renamed her the Mexicana. He put a crew aboard and spent a few days transferring guns to outfit her, while the Eagle left to continue her cruise. Then Gambi set sail under the colors of the Mexican insurgency, the ship's former Spanish flags in the locker just in case, and almost immediately took the Nuestra Senora de Rosario. As soon as he took the prize, he renamed the Santa Rita again to cover her tracks, this time calling her the Nonesuch?22