The Pirates Laffite

by William C. Davis

  41. Robinson, Memoirs, II, p. 127.

  42. Robinson, Memoirs, I, p. 59; Faye, "Aury," p. 641, CAHUT.

  43. Diary of Antonio Aguirre, November 4, 21, 23, December 4, 6, 14, 21, 22, 1816, January 21, 1817, Blake, Supplement VIII, pp. 140–47.

  44. Aguirre Diary, January 21, 1817, Blake Supplement VIII, p. 147, X, p. 161.

  45. United States vs. the Independence alias Hotspur, Case #1026, NAFW.

  46. Beverly Chew to William Crawford, August 1, 1817, Message from the President of the United States, Communicating Information of the Proceeding of Certain Persons who took Possession of Amelia Island and of Galvezton, During the Summer of the Present Year, and made Establishments There (Washington, 1817), pp. 8–9.

  47. Sedella to Cienfuegos, March 1, 2, 1817, Ibid.

  48. Pierre Laffite and Jean Laffite to Cienfuegos, February 26, 1817, in Dorothy McD. Karilanovic, trans., "Letters from the National Archive of Cuba," Laffite Society Chronicles, V (February 1999), n.p. The original is in the Papeles de Cuba, Legajo 492, Expediente 18, 688, microfilm at HNOC. A copy is in Legajo 1898, AGI-Newberry.

  49. Sedella to Cienfuegos, February 26, 1817, Legajo 1898, AGI-Newberry.

  50. The January 1817 shipment to Laffite and Duparc is attested in Manifest of Cargo on Board the Ship Patterson, Entry 1657, Record of Fees Paid, Cargo Manifests, RG 36, NA. Not a trace can be found in census, vital statistics, city directories, or other records of the Laffite and Duparc partnership, or of Vincent Duparc himself. He was not fictional, for a federal case cited below involves his estate, but in the absence of evidence of him trading as a merchant except in this voyage to Galveston, and one other, it seems reasonable to assume that the business partnership was brief, and a matter of convenience for a specific purpose, rather than a conventional concern.

  51. Again, Maire was certainly not a Laffite brother-in-law as Faye and Warren claimed. In 1815 he married Adeline Godon, born in 1788 of a white family that predated the Laffites in Louisiana. Maire died in 1827, by then a merchant in New Orleans. His widow lived to be 103, and in later years claimed that her husband had been a wealthy planter, but the Maire inventory of 1827 cited earlier shows he was worth just $2, 475, and lived not on a plantation but in a house on Peace Street. Years later the widow, or her daughter Mathilde who lived with her, said that Maire was "a gentleman of wealth, who traveled a great deal" (New Orleans, Daily Picayune, January 5, 1891). Adelaide Maire lived at 365 North Dolhonde in 1890 and 1891, and in 1832 appeared in the New Orleans City Directory listed as the widow of Lawrence Maire.

  52. Drawback Statements, March 11, 25, 1817, Entry 1656, RG 36, NA.

  53. The absence of other drawbacks for the Devorador suggest that the Laffites may have bought the ship for this voyage alone, or else did not otherwise use Devorador for mercantile trading.

  54. Drawback, March 7, 1817, Entry 1656, RG 36, NA.

  55. Walter Lowrie and Matthew St. Clair Clarke, eds., American State Papers. Documents Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States....: Class VI, Commerce and Navigation, Volume I (Washington, 1832), pp. 574–75.

  56. Ducoing went to Galveston on March 16 to become first lieutenant on Champlin's privateer under Aury. Deposition of John Ducoing, October 7, 1817, United States vs. the cargo of the Mount Vernon, Case #1070, NAFW.

  57. Diary of Jean Laffite, March 16, 1817, Legajo 1900, Papeles de Cuba, AGI-Newberry. This is translated in Harris Gaylord Warren, "Documents Relating to the Establishment of Privateers at Galveston, 1816–1817," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXI (October 1938), pp. 19–20.

  58. Laffite Diary, March 23, 1817, Warren, "Documents," p. 20.

  59. Ibid., March 27–28, 1817, Warren, "Documents," pp. 20–21.

  60. Ibid., March 30, 1817, Warren, "Documents," p. 21.

  61. Beverly Chew to William Crawford, August 1, 1817, American State Papers, Foreign Relations, IV, pp. 134, 136–37; Robinson, Memoirs, p. 59.

  62. Statement of J. F. Lamourer, n.d., Felipe Fatio vs. Certain Goods and Merchandise, Case #1033, NAFW. Sadly no issues of this first Texas newspaper seem to have survived.

  63. Deposition of Felipe Fatio vs. Certain Goods and Merchandise, Case #1033, NAFW.

  64. Robinson, Memoirs, I, pp. 75—76.

  65. Certificate of delivery, April 4, 1817, with endorsements, Entry 1656, RG 36, NA.

  66. Herrera Statement, July 1, 1816, Notary Marc Lafitte, Vol. 9, act 310, NONA.

  67. Hayes, Galveston, p. 25; Warren, "Documents," p. 12; Deposition of Raymond Espagnol, October 7, 1817, United States vs. the Cargo of the Mount Vernon, Case #1070, NAFW.

  68. Deposition of Vincent Garros, August 12, 1817, United States vs. cargoes of the Juana, Eliza, Carmelita, and Diana, Case #1065, NAFW.

  69. Laffite Diary, April 7–8, 1817, Warren, "Documents," p. 22.

  70. Dyer became acquainted with an elderly man named Jao de la Porta, who told him a story of having been with Aury at Galveston, and then left behind in charge of seven armed men in a camp. Laffite supposedly arrived with Durieux rather than finding him already on the island, and then negotiated with de la Porta and Rousselin for the purchase of the camp. Afterward those on the island formed what they called the St. Louis Company with Rousselin acting as treasurer and de la Porta secretary. Like most of what Dyer gleaned in the later 1800s, this account is probably mostly imagination. Galveston, Daily News, March 15, 1920. There are two relevant documents in the J. O. Dyer Collection at the Rosenberg Library in Galveston, one purporting to be signed by de la Porta in 1818, and the other an appointment of de la Porta as "supercargo" to the Karankawa Indians. The latter carries a clearly inauthentic Jean Laffite signature, and both were probably the creations of de la Porta in his later years when he was the sole source of all statements that place him in Laffite's settlement.

  71. Registry of Deliberations Made at Galveston April 15, 1817, United States vs. Jean Desfarges et al., Case File #1440, NAFW.

  72. Ibid.; Deposition of John Ducoing, October 7, 1817, United States vs. the cargo of the Mount Vernon, Case #1070, NAFW.

  73. Laffite Diary, April 10–15, 1817, Warren, "Documents," p. 22.

  74. Registry of Deliberations Made at Galveston April 15, 1817, United States vs. Jean Desfarges et al., Case File #1440, NAFW.

  75. Deposition of John Ducoing, October 7, 1817, United States vs. the cargo of the Mount Vernon, Case #1070, NAFW.

  SIXTEEN

  1. Chew to Crawford, August 1, 1817, M-38, Miscellaneous Letters of the Department of State August i-October 31, 1817, RG 59, NA.

  2. Deposition of John Ducoing, October 7, 1817, United States vs. the cargo of the Mount Vernon, Case #1070, NAFW.

  3. Martinez to Commandant General, April 17, 1818, Taylor, Letters of Antonio Martinez, pp. 116–17.

  4. This seems the only way to account for a debit against the Laffite account for a pirogue purchased at Galveston, April 29, when neither Laffite was at Galveston. Goods sold by Champlin to Laffites at Galveston, charged to Pierre Laffite account with firm of Champlin and Adams in New Orleans, Statement of Pierre Laffite Account with Guy Champlin, Pierre Lafitte vs. Estate of Guy Champlin, #1730, First Judicial Court, NOPL.

  5. Statement of account of Pierre Laffite, Pierre Laffite vs. Estate of Guy Champlin, #1730, First Judicial Court, NOPL.

  6. Laffite Diary, April 17–18, 1817, Warren, "Documents," pp. 22–23, 25.

  7. Jean Laffite to Sedella, April 28, 1817, enclosure with Cienfuegos to Apodaca, May 14, 1817, quoted in Faye, "Stroke," p. 769; Jean Laffite to Latour, May 1817, Legajo 1900, AGI-Newberry.

  8. Jean Laffite to Sedella, April 28, 1817, enclosure with Cienfuegos to Apodaca, May 14, 1817, quoted in Faye, "Stroke," p. 769.

  9. Jean Laffite to Latour, May 1817, Legajo 1900, AGI-Newberry.

  10. Louis Aury, Commission to Nicolas Aiguette, May 7, 1817, translation in Elizabeth H. West Papers, University of Florida, Gainesville. The whereabouts of the original of this document are unknown.

&nb
sp; 11. Charles Morris to Crowninshield, June 10, 1817, Message of the President, pp. 34–35.

  12. Laffite Diary, April 22-May 2, 1817, Warren, "Documents," p. 23; Deposition of John Ducoing, October 7, 1817, Aury to Ducoing, May 8, 1817, United States vs. the Cargo of the Mount Vernon, Case #1070; Deposition of John Ducoing, August 12, 1817, United States vs. Cargoes of the Juana, Eliza, Carmelita, and Diana, Case #1065, NAFW.

  13. Ramirez to Cienfuegos, April 7, 1817, Papeles de Estado, Audiencia de Mexico, Legajo 5560, Expediente 6, AGI-Newberry.

  14. The original is in Gobierno Superior Civil, Coleccion de Documentos del Archivo Nacional de Cuba, Havana, Legajo 492, Expediente 18688, microfilm at HNOC.

  15. Onís to Pizarro, November 22, 1818, Legajo 1898, AGI-Newberry.

  16. Ibid.

  17. Cienfuegos to Fatio, April 12, 1817, Ibid.

  18. Fatio to Cienfuegos, May 14, 1817, Legajo 1900, AGI-Newberry.

  19. Fatio to Luis Noeli, August 31, 1818, Onís to Pizarro, November 22, 1818, Legajo 1898, AGI-Newberry.

  20. Fatio to Cienfuegos, May 24, 1817, September 28, 1818, Legajo 1900, AGI-Newberry.

  21. John Holland to Marie Louise Villard, May II, 1817, Notary Phillipe Pedesclaux, Vol. 2, p. 603-bis, NONA.

  22. Statement of Pierre Laffite Account with Guy Champlin, Pierre Lafitte vs. Estate of Guy Champlin, #1730, First Judicial Court, NOPL. The account statement is confused in places between credits and debits, but this seems to be an accurate figure.

  23. Felipe Fatio statement of Expenses, September 29, 1817, Gobierno Superior Civil, Coleccion de Documentos del Archivo Nacional de Cuba, Havana, Legajo 492, Expediente 18688, microfilm at HNOC.

  24. Statement of Pierre Laffite Account with Guy Champlin, Pierre Lafitte vs. Estate of Guy Champlin, #1730, First Judicial Court, NOPL.

  25. Certificate of delivery, April 4, 1817, with endorsements, Entry 1656, RG 36, NA.

  26. Fatio to Cienfuegos, June 18, 1817, Legajo 1900, Onís to Pizarro, November 22, 1818, Legajo 1898, AGI-Newberry.

  27. Information derived [from] James Campbell now residing on the Galveston Bay, 10th June 1855, Lamar Papers, TSL.

  28. Statement of Pierre Laffite Account with Guy Champlin, Pierre Lafitte vs. Estate of Guy Champlin, #1730, First Judicial Court, NOPL.

  29. Deposition of Raymond Espagnol, October 7, 1817, United States vs. the Cargo of the Mount Vernon, Case #1070, NAFW.

  30. Libel of John Dick, n.d. [1817], United States vs. 37 Pivots, Case #1062, NAFW.

  31. Fatio to Cienfuegos, May 24, 1817, Legajo 1900, AGI-Newberry.

  32. Luís Iturribarria to Luis Durieux, May 15, 1817, Legajo 1900, AGI-Newberry.

  33. Fatio to Jose Cienfuegos, May 13, 1817, Legajo 1900, AGI-Newberry.

  34. Fatio to Cienfuegos, June 7, 1817, Ibid.

  35. Pierre Laffite to Jean Laffite, July 23, 1817, in Dorothy McD. Karilanovic, trans., "Letters from the National Archive of Cuba," Laffite Society Chronicles, V (February 1999), n.p. The original is in the Gobierno Superior Civil, Coleccion de Documentos del Archivo Nacional de Cuba, Havana, Legajo 492, Expediente 18688, Archivo Nacional, Havana, and also on microfilm at HNOC. A copy is in Legajo 1900, AGI-Newberry.

  36. Fatio to Cienfuegos, June 18, 1817, Legajo 1900, AGI-Newberry.

  37. George Lewis to Jean Laffite, June 6, 1817, Notary Michele DeArmas, Vol. 13, June 6, 1817, item 340; Jean Laffite to Louise Patin, June 20, 1817, Vol. 13, item 376, NONA.

  38. Fatio to Cienfuegos, May 31, June 7, 1817, Legajo 1900, AGI-Newberry; Martinez to Commandant General, June 11, 1817, Blake, XVI, pp. 280, June 15, 1817, pp. 282–83, June 23, 1817, pp. 284–90. In his May 31 letter Fatio says Pierre left that day, but he must have been delayed.

  39. Martinez to Commandant General, July 14, 1817, Blake, XVI, pp. 302–3, Castañeda to the governor, June 13, 1817, Supplement X, p. 265.

  40. Statement of Pierre Laffite Account with Guy Champlin, Pierre Lafitte vs. Estate of Guy Champlin, #1730, First Judicial Court, NOPL; Fatio to Cienfuegos, June 18, 1817, July 11, 1817, Legajo 1900, AGI-Newberry.

  41. Deposition of Vincent Garros, August 12, 1817, United States vs. Cargoes of the Juana, Eliza, Carmelita, and Diana, Case #1065, NAFW.

  42. Pierre Laffite to Jean Laffite, July 23, 1817, Karilanovic, "Letters from the National Archive of Cuba," n.p.

  43. Ibid.

  44. Aury to Chew, July 31, 1817, United States vs. Jean Desfarges et al., Case #1440, NAFW.

  45. Statement of Pierre Laffite Account with Guy Champlin, Pierre Lafitte vs. Estate of Guy Champlin, #1730, First Judicial Court, NOPL.

  46. New Orleans, Louisiana Gazette and New-Orleans Mercantile Advertiser, April 24, May 3, 15, 27, 1817.

  47. Drawback for the Pucille, June n, 1817, Drawback for Alonzo, May 13, 1817, Entry 1656, RG 36, NA.

  48. James Miller to Chew, January 30, 1817, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.

  49. Charles Morris to Crowninshield, June 10, 1817, Message of the President, pp. 34–35, John Porter to Crowninshield, June 28, 1817, p. 35.

  50. Statement of Pierre Laffite Account with Guy Champlin, Pierre Lafitte vs. Estate of Guy Champlin, #1730, First Judicial Court, NOLA.

  51. Deposition of Mr. Hennen, January 8, 1818, Henry Coit vs. Jacob Jennings and George W. Morgan, Case File #1701, 1st Judicial District Court, NOPL. Champlin's date of death is unknown, but two bills of exchange from Robert Sprigg dated August 1 and 2, 1817, and one from James Still, dated August 2, 1817, make it clear that Champlin was already dead at their writing. Henry Coit vs. Christopher Adams, Case File #1727, 1st Judicial District Court, NOPL.

  52. William Crawford docketing on Chew to Crawford, August 1, 1817, M-38, RG 59, NA.

  53. William H. Crawford to Chew, January 31, 1818, Ibid.

  54. Patterson to Crowninshield, January 10, 1818, Area 8, M-625, NA.

  55. Onís to Adams, September 19, 1817, Ibid.

  56. Chew to Crawford, August 30, 1817, Message of the President, p. 13.

  57. Bond, July 9, 1817, Claim of Vincent Duparc, July 7, 1817, Seizure order, July 5, 1817, Statement of Beverly Chew, August 5, 1817, Court order, February 25, 1826, Libel of Joshua Lewis, December 18, 1826, United States vs. 37 Pivots, Case #1062, NAFW; Dick to Chew, July 8, 1817, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.

  58. Daniel Wright power of attorney, July 25, 1817, Notary Michele DeArmas, Vol. 13, item 428, NONA.

  59. Pierre Laffite to Jean Laffite, August 16, 1817, Karilanovic, "Letters from the National Archive of Cuba," n.p. In the article this letter is mistakenly identified as being from Jean to Pierre, whereas internal evidence makes it evident that it is the other way around. The original is in Gobierno Superior Civil, Coleccion de Documentos del Archivo Nacional de Cuba, Havana, Legajo 492, Expediente 18688, microfilm at HNOC. In the translation Pierre says he sends "a thousand things to the brother-in-law," a reference repeated in his October 7, 1819, letter to Cagigal, cited hereafter. There is no evidence of a Laffite brother-in-law, which makes this puzzling, unless it was a colloquialism for a close associate. Both letters would have been in French, calling for the term "beaufrere. "When the 1817 Cagigal letter was sent on to Havana by Fatio, he had it translated to Spanish, and it survives only in this version. If there was a misreading in the transcription of the Spanish version, "cuñado" might have been misread from "cuñada," sister-in-law, in which case Pierre could be referring to Catherine though neither brother was married.

  60. Felipe Fatio statement of Expenses, September 29, 18x7, Gobierno Superior Civil, Coleccion de Documentos del Archivo Nacional, Havana, Legajo 492, Expediente 18688, microfilm in HNOC.

  61. Chew to Crawford, August 30, 1817, Message of the President, p. 13.

  62. Fatio to Cienfuegos, September 29, 1817, Cienfuegos to Fatio, July 10, 1817, Legajo 1900, AGI-Newberry.

  63. Fatio to Cienfuegos, September 29, 1817, Ibid.; Statement of Expenses, September 29, 1817, Gobierno Superior Civil, Coleccion de Documentos del Archivo Nacional, Havana, Legajo 492, Expediente 18688, microfilm in HNOC. Jean Laff
ite may have been lying about the mortgage on the house, for no record of such a transaction survives in NONA.

  64. Pierre Laffite to Cienfuegos, September 1, 1817, in Dorothy McD. Karilanovic, trans., "Letters from the National Archive of Cuba," Laffite Society Chronicles, V (February 1999), n.p. The original is in Gobierno Superior Civil, Coleccion de Documentos del Archivo Nacional, Havana, Legajo 492, Expediente 18688, microfilm in HNOC.

  65. New Orleans, Louisiana Courier, September 2, 1817.

  66. Ibid., October 8, 1817.

  67. Chew to Crawford, October 17, 1817, Message of the President, p. 15.

  68. Fatio to Cienfuegos, September 29, 1817, Legajo 1900, AGI-Newberry.

  69. Fatio to Cienfuegos, September 29, November 1, 5, 1817, Ibid.

  70. Fatio to Cienfuegos, September 29, 1817, November 1, 2, 1817, Ibid.

  71. Chew to Crawford, October 17, 1817, Message of the President, p. 15.

  SEVENTEEN

  1. "C" to Victoire Aury Dupuis, October 18, 1817, Aury Papers, CAHUT.

  2. Charles Bagot to Castlereagh, September 1, 1817, FO5/123, National Archives, London.

  3. Bagot to Castlereagh, October 6, 1817, Ibid.

  4. Bagot to Castlereagh, December 2, 1817, Ibid.

  5. Ibid.

  6. James Monroe Message to Congress, December 2, 1817, Walter Lowrie and Walter S. Franklin, eds., American State Papers. Documents Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States....: Class I, Foreign Relations, Volume IV (Washington, 1834), pp. 131–32.

  7. Robert Butler to William A. Trimble, December 31, 1817, Records of United States Commands, Army Commands, 1784–1821, Entry 72, Letters, Division of the South, 1816–1821, Vol. 2, RG 98, NA.

  8. Pierre Laffite to Paullin Fleytas, November 10, 1817, Notary Philippe Pedesclaux, Vol. 3, item 771; Sale of a griffe named Francoise, November 12, 1817, item 782, NONA.

  9. Jesse S. Reeves, The Napoleonic Exiles in America: A Study in American Diplomatic History 1813–1819. (Baltimore, 1905; Johns Hopkins University Studies in History and Political Science, Series XXIII), pp. 85–87.

  10. Ines Murat, Napoleon and the American Dream (Baton Rouge, LA, 1976), p. 121.