11. Murat, American Dream, pp. 121, 125; Just Girard, The Adventures of a French Captain (New York, 1878), p. 58.
12. Felipe Roque de la Portilla to Joaquin de Arredondo, May 8, 1818, Blake, Supplement, VIII, p. 187.
13. Antonio de Carion to Diego Morphy, March 21, 1817, Fatio Papers, Rosenberg Library, Galveston; Statement of Pierre Laffite Account with Guy Champlin, Pierre Lafitte vs. Estate of Guy Champlin, #1730, First Judicial Court, NOPL.
14. Report of all vessels inward bound boarded by the Inspector at the Balize, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.
15. Bollaert says that Dominique acted as "major-domo, or grand chamberlain" at Galveston, but there is no evidence that he spent much time there or was even a frequent visitor. B[ollaert], "Lafitte," p. 442.
16. Maria Jane Mcintosh, Conquest and Self-Conquest; or, Which Makes the Hero? (New York, 1843), pp. 163–64. This novel is apparently based on accounts received from the author's brother, who visited Laffite in 1819 and left his own narrative. Thus this detail on Laffite's house is probably from firsthand observation, and is the earliest known description of the house, such as it is. Mary Campbell told John Dyer in 1879 or earlier that Laffite painted his house red. This is the earliest and only eyewitness statement to support the later tradition of a red house called "Maison Rouge," and comes more than half a century after the fact. Galveston, Daily News, May 25, 1879.
17. Deposition of Mariano Gonzales, October 9, 20, 1818, United States vs. Schooner Lameson, Case #1227, NAFW; Jack Autrey Dabbs, "Additional Notes on the Champ d'Asile," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, LIV (January 1951), pp. 351–52.
18. John Sibley to John Robinson, March 16, 1818, Gettysburg, PA, Adams Centinel, April 29, 1818.
19. Dabbs, "Additional Notes," p. 350.
20. Fannie E. Ratchford, ed., The Story of Champ D'Asile as Told by Two of the Colonists (Dallas, TX, 1937), pp. 123–24.
21. Dabbs, "Additional Notes," pp. 352–53; Girard, Adventures, pp. 58–60.
22. Ratchford, Champ D'Asile, p. 77.
23. Fatio to Luis Noeli, June 27, 1818, Legajo 1877, AGI-Newberry.
24. Onís to Pizarro, November 22, 1818, Legajo 1898, AGI-Newberry.
25. Dabbs, "Additional Notes," p. 353.
26. Pierre Laffite to Jean Laffite, February 17, 1818, Legajo 1900, AGI-Newberry.
27. Fatio to Cienfuegos, February 19, 1818, Ibid.
28. Ibid.
29. Pierre Laffite to Chew, n.d., New Orleans, Louisiana Courier; February 6, 1818. Pierre and Jean both demonstrate a heavy hand with sarcasm in their writings to and about the authorities. Stanley Faye attributed a letter in the Washington, National Intelligencer, April 4, 1818, to Pierre Laffite, in which he jokingly talks of making captives "walk the plank."
30. Information derived from Col. S. M. Williams respecting Lafitte, n.d., Lamar Papers, TSL.
31. Fatio to Guillermo Aubarede, January 31, 1818, Legajo 1900, AGI-Newberry.
32. Pierre Laffite to Jean Laffite, February 17, 1818, Ibid.
33. Ibid.
34. Fatio to Cienfuegos, February 19, 1818, Ibid.
35. The letter Pierre wrote to Jean on February 17, 1818 (see below) is the only mention of this son Eugene by name or inference in all the Laffite documentation, though Fatio does apparently confirm it in his February 18, 1818, letter to Cienfuegos, Legajo 1900, AGI-Newberry. It must be considered possible that the boy was not Pierre's son, who would hardly need the introduction that Pierre gives him in his letter, and that he may simply have been a courier whose safe conduct Pierre wanted to guarantee.
36. Fatio to Cienfuegos, February 12, 1818, Legajo 1900, AGI-Newberry.
37. Ratchford, Champ D'Asile, p. 124.
38. Fatio to Luis Noeli, June 27, 1818, Legajo 1877, AGI-Newberry.
39. Girard, Adventures, p. 61; Dabbs, "Additional Notes," p. 353. Jean Epperson concludes that they probably located themselves on modern-day Moss Bluff overlooking the Trinity River, midway between Liberty and Lake Charlotte. Jean L. Epperson, "Where was Champ D'Asile?" Laffite Society Chronicles, V (August 1999), [pp. 16–17].
40. John Sibley to J. H. Robinson, April 25, 1818, New Orleans, Louisiana Courier, May 22, 1818.
41. Brivezac, Rapport sur Letat et la Situation Exacte des Colonies Espagnole de L'Amerique a la fin de 1817, Library of Congress.
42. Kent Gardien, "Take Pity on Our Glory: Men of Champ d'Asile," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, LXXXVII (January 1984), p. 241.
43. Dabbs, "Additional Notes," p. 354.
44. Girard, Adventures, pp. 78–79.
45. Sources disagree on the precise location of the Laffite village in relation to today's Galveston. According to notes in the Anne and Walter Grover Papers, Rosenberg Library, Galveston, his house stood on the west half of 14th Street and Avenue A, and the southeast corner of city Block 714. Christensen, Pioneers, p. 72, locates Laffite's fort at 14th Street and Avenue A at #1417, according to the 1845 Sandusky Map. In the twentieth century a retaining wall was found on the site measuring six feet thick and eighteen inches wide, with twelve large cisterns inside the enclosure. Heavy rings of iron on posts suggested boat moorings to some. The best guess for the commune's main location is to the east where the University of Texas Medical Branch was erected in the 1930s. Excavations then and later consistently unearthed construction materials beneath the water table, placing them there at the time of the Laffite occupation.
46. R. J. Calder to J. S. Sullivan, August 15, 1872, Hayes, Galveston, pp. 43–44n; Baker, Scrap-Book, p. 357n Note that this is Jones's earliest recorded recollection of Laffite, predating by twenty-two years the 1894 lost memoir of which a fragment survives.
47. J. Randal Jones, A Visit to Galveston Island in 1818, Rosenberg Library, Galveston. This consists of notes taken in 1894 by Philip C. Tucker, from a longer Jones memoir that was lost in the Galveston hurricane of 1900.
48. Warren Hall supposedly told Mary Campbell that Laffite suffered from seasickness, which is always possible, but the source is so latter day as not to be trusted on its own. Galveston, Daily News, May 9, 1920.
49. B[ollaert], "Lafitte," p. 442; J. S. Thrasher, Galveston City Directory, 1857 (Galveston, TX, 1857), p. 61. The tradition is persistent that Laffite painted his house red, though no contemporary source supports this, the earliest known being the circa 1879 statement by Mary Campbell cited previously.
50. L. Hartmann and__Millard, Le Texas, ou Notice Historique sur le Champ d'Asile (Paris, France, 1819), pp. 27, 83. This source is somewhat questionable, but is at least contemporary. Statements of the nature of the village grew more and more exaggerated with the passage of time, even when attributable to eyewitnesses. Direct contemporary accounts do not paint a very lavish portrait.
51. Information derived [from] James Campbell now residing on the Galveston Bay, 10th June 1855, Lamar Papers, TSL; Mary Campbell Statement, June 20, 1880, James Campbell Pension File, War of 1812, Records Relating to Pension and Bounty Land Claims, 1773–1942, RG 15, NA. A great deal has been made of the accounts of James and Mary Campbell and their life on Galveston. There are several versions, all derivative, and while there is no reason to doubt that the Campbells were there, most of the rest of their recollections are of questionable value, being written decades after the fact and influenced by the Laffite legend and current fiction.
52. W. A. Fayman and T. W. Reilly, Fayman & Reilly's Galveston City Directory for i8jy-6 (Galveston, TX, 1875), [pp. 15–16]. The source of the information in Fayman and Reilly is not identified, but the statements are almost verbatim in an account attributed four years later to Mary Campbell in Galveston, Daily News, May 25, 1879.
53. Willis W. Pratt, ed., Galveston Island, or, A Few Months off the Coast of Texas. The Journal of Francis C. Sheridan, 1859–1840 (Austin, 1954), p. 63.
54. Faye, "Privateersmen," pp. 1038, 1078—79; Navigation Order, April 2, 1818, Alexander Dienst Collection, CAHUT. The latter source purports to be a statement of letters of marque granted to one Nicolai to o
perate the bateau Princess as a privateer on the rivers of Texas. The document is almost certainly a fake, signed by Jao de la Porta as secretary, which he seems never to have been. The Jean Laffite signature is clearly false. This collection also has a document dated May 15, 1818, purporting to be Laffite's appointment of de la Porta to deal with the Karankawas. Laffite signs himself "president" of the commune, but the signature is not genuine. Both of these documents exist in copies in the Dyer Collection, Rosenberg, and were reproduced in the Galveston, Daily News, September 19, 1926.
55. R. J. Calder to J. S. Sullivan, August 15, 1872, Hayes, Galveston, pp. 43–44"-
56. Deposition of Alexandre Danges, October 10, 1818, United States vs. Schooner Lameson, Case #1227, NAFW.
57. William F. Gray, From Virginia to Texas, 1855: Diary of Col. Wm. F. Gray (Houston, 1909), p. 170. This is near the site of modern Deweyville.
58. Louis Raphael Nardini, Sr., My Historic Natchitoches, Louisiana and Its Environment (Colfax, LA, 1963), pp. 106–107, 133. Nardini is an often questionable source, but the procedure detailed in this instance matches other accounts of slave laundering from the period.
59. Colfax, LA, Chronicle, August 24, 1962. The article identified one of the agents as "Savoldo," which is almost certainly a misstatement of Sauvinet.
60. Joe Gray Taylor, Negro Slavery in Louisiana (Baton Rouge, LA, 1963), p. 55.
61. Nardini, Historic Natchitoches, pp. 106—7, 133.
62. Tariff rates of the time can be found in Lawrence Furlong, The American Coast Pilot (Newburyport, MA, 1817).
63. John Sibley to John Robinson, March 16, 1818, Gettysburg, PA, Adams Centinel, April 29, 1818.
64. Pierre Laffite to Nicholas Mioton, April 18, 1818, Notary Philippe Pedesclaux, Vol. 4, item 320, NONA.
65. Marie Louise Villard to Antoine Abat, April 1, 1818, Notary Philippe Pedesclaux, Vol. 4, item 257; Antoine Abat statement, April 1, 1818, Vol. 4, item 256, NONA.
66. Fatio to Cienfuegos, November 1, 2, 1817, Legajo 1900, AGI-Newberry.
67. Noeli to Fatio, July 3, 1818, Fatio to Noeli, August 31, 1818, Legajo 1898, AGI-Newberry.
68. Cienfuegos to Apodaca, Havana, May 26, 1818, Gobierno Superior Civil, Coleccion de Documentos del Archivo Nacional de Cuba, Havana, Legajo 492, Expediente 18688, microfilm at HNOC. In Fatio to Luis Noeli, August 31, 1818, Legajo 1898, AGI-Newberry, Fatio makes reference to $100 that "number 13 received in Havana" for the expenses of a trip.
69. Joaquin de Arredondo to the governor of Texas, April 27, 1818, Nacogdoches Archives, TSL.
70. Fatio to Martinez, May 22, 1818, Blake, Supplement, VIII, p. 196.
71. Martinez to Viceroy, May 19, 1818, Blake, XVI, pp. 4–6.
72. Martinez to Apodaca, Viceroy, May 23, 1818, Blake, XVI, pp. 15–17, Martinez to Cienfuegos, May 18, 1818, Blake XVII, p. 58.
73. Deposition of Mariano Gonzales October 9, 1818, United States vs. Schooner Lameson, #1227, NAFW.
74. Martinez to Apodaca, July 29, 1818, Blake, XVI, pp. 42–44; December 21, 1818, report, Gardien, "Champ d'Asile," p. 254.
75. Report of Juan de Castañeda, November 24, 1818, Blake, LIII, pp. 108, 114, 119.
76. Gardien, "Champ d'Asile," p. 252.
77. Felipe Roque de la Portilla to Joaquin de Arredondo, May 8, 1818, Blake, Supplement, VIII, pp. 186–90.
78. Jacobo Tournelle and Vicente Molina to Felipe Fatio, May 22, 1818, Blake, Supplement, VIII, pp. 198–201.
79. Fatio to Noeli, June 27, 1818, Legajo 1877, AGI-Newberry.
EIGHTEEN
1. Adams, Memoirs, IV, pp. 15, 91, 97.
2. George Mason Graham Stafford, comp., General George Mason Graham of Tyrone Plantation and His People (New Orleans, 1947), pp. 63–64.
3. Adams to George Mason Graham, June 2, 1818, Graham Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, VA. This is also to be found in Domestic Letters of the Department of State, Volume 17, March 3, 1817-February 23, 1820, M-50, RG 59, NA.
4. Jacobo Tournelle and Vicente Molina to Fatio, May 22, 1818, Blake, Supplement, VIII, pp. 198–201.
5. Tournelle and Molina to Fatio, May 22, 1818, Blake, Supplement, VIII, pp. 198–201.
6. Apodaca to Governor of Texas, June 23, 1818, Nacogdoches Archives, TSL.
7. Girard, Adventures, p. 84; Fatio and Noeli to Cienfuegos, July 7, 1818, quoted in Faye, Privateers, p. 188.
8. Gardien, "Champ d'Asile," p. 256.
9. Graham to Eleazer Ripley, August 28, 1818, Graham Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society.
10. Girard, Adventures, pp. 60—61.
11. Martinez to Apodaca, July 29, 1818, Blake, XVI, pp. 42–44.
12. Girard, Adventures, pp. 60–61.
13. Klier, "Champ d'Asile," pp. 89–90.
14. Letter dated July 12, 1818, in Reeves, Napoleonic Exiles, p. 90.
15. Commission of Pedro Lameson, July 16, 1818, United States vs. Schooner Lameson, Case #1227, NAFW.
16. Libel of John Dick August 12, 1818, Ibid.; Protest of Pierre Lameson, August 8, 1818, Notary Michele DeArmas, Vol. 15A, Part 1, act 647, NONA.
17. Deposition of Mariano Gonzales October 9, 1818, United States vs. Schooner Lameson, #1227, NAFW.
18. New Orleans, Orleans Gazette, August n, 1818; New York, Spectator, September 15, 1818.
19. Protest of Pierre Lameson, August 8, 1818, Notary Michele DeArmas, Vol. 15A, Part 1, act 647, NONA; Claim, August 21, 1818, Admissions and cross questions of Edwin Lorraine and Edward Livingston, n.d., Petition of Pierre Lameson, November 5, 1818, United States vs. Schooner Lameson, Case #1227, NAFW.
20. Luis Noeli to Fatio, August 28, 1818, Legajo 1898, AGI-Newberry.
21. Fatio to Noeli, August 31, 1818, Ibid.
22. Fatio to Noeli, August 31, 1818, Onís to the Intendant, November 25, 1818, Ibid.
23. Fatio to Cienfuegos, September 28, 1818, Legajo 1900, AGI-Newberry.
24. Marshall, Western Boundary, pp. 55–58.
25. Charleston, Courier, June 19, 1818.
26. Apodaca to Martinez, Sept. 22, 1818, Blake, Supplement, VIII, p. 210.
27. George Graham report, n.d. [September 1818], Graham Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society.
28. Graham to Lallemand, August 26, 1818, Ibid.
29. Lallemand to Graham, August 26, 1818, Ibid.
30. Graham to Eleazer Ripley, August 28, 1818, Ibid. The last portion of this letter is missing in the original, but it is printed in its entirety in George Mason Graham, "Political Occurrences on the Island of Galvezton in 1818," Tyler's Historical and Genealogical Magazine, XXVII (April 1946), p. 272, and in Stafford, Graham, p. 82.
31. Jean Laffite to Graham, August 26, 1818, George Mason Graham Papers, LSU.
32. Graham to Laffite, August 26, 1818, [copy] Graham Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society.
33. George Graham report, n.d. [September 1818], Ibid.; Jean Laffite to Graham, August 28, 1818, Graham Papers, LSU.
34. Letter of Protection, August 28, 1818, Graham Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society.
35. John Dyer in Galveston, Daily News, September 19, 1926, says his father was in business with Graham in New Orleans in later years, and that Graham said Laffite spoke in pained terms of the fictionalized accounts of his piracy that he saw in the papers. Like all of Dyer's stories, it is probably imaginative, but could be true.
36. Graham to Eleazer Ripley, August 28, 1818, Graham Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society. The last portion of this letter is missing in the original, but it is printed in its entirety in Graham, "Political Occurrences," p. 272, and in Stafford, Graham, p. 82.
37. Adams, Memoirs, November 20, 1818, IV, pp. 175–76; Graham to David C. DeForest, n.d. [copy], Graham Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society.
38. Ratchford, Champ D'Asile, pp. 151–53.
39. Deposition, 1818, Notary John Lynd, Vol. 15, item 1005, NONA.
40. Martinez to Apodaca, October 15, 1818, Blake, XVI, p. 67.
41. Girard, Adventures, p. 86.
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br /> 42. Ratchford, Champ D'Asile, pp. 151–53.
43. Galveston, Gazette quoted in Newark, NJ, Daily Advertiser, February 12, 1840, says that Laffite lost many men, but does not elaborate. Certainly, in such a storm at an unprotected location, fatalities were inevitable; Jones, A Visit to Galveston Island in 1818, Rosenberg Library, Galveston.
44. Saxon, Lafitte, pp. 221–22, says that cannon on the upper floor of the house broke through the floor during the hurricane, killing women and children who were sheltering below, and injuring Catherine Villard. As usual, he offers no source for this statement, nor for his assertion that Laffite sat out the storm on a vessel in the bay. There is no contemporary evidence that Catherine was ever on the island.
45. Dyer states in Galveston, Daily News, September 19, 1926, that after the hurricane Laffite was virtually "dictator" at Galveston. For once he is probably right.
46. Girard, Adventures, p. 86; Ratchford, Champ D'Asile, pp. 158–59.
47. Fatio to Cienfuegos, May 13, 1817, Fatio Papers, Rosenberg Library, Galveston.
48. Cienfuegos to Apodaca, July 17, 1818, Historia, Operaciones de Guerra, Notas Diplomáticas, AGI-Newberry.
49. Apodaca to the Governor of Texas, August 13, 1818, Nacogdoches Archives, TSL; Martinez to Commandant General, September 8, 1818, Taylor, The Letters of Antonio Martinez, p. 173.
50. Jean Laffite to Graham, September 21, 1818, Graham Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society. This letter, which appears to be a holograph original, has been misinterpreted from time to time as confirmation that there was a third Laffite brother, for in it—in translation—Jean states that he had sent "my young brother" to New Orleans "in order that upon his arrival he may receive the dispatches that I address to my brother who must be quite near you." This appears to mention two brothers, then, the "young" one and the one in New Orleans. The problem lies in the translation, however, and the two brothers are the same and only brother, Pierre. Jean's reference to him as "young" is hard to explain unless it, too, is the result of translation. It should be borne in mind that neither Laffite was an accomplished writer. Sentence structure, syntax, grammar, and more were idiosyncratic and often jumbled in their letters. Jean may simply have misspoken or improperly expressed himself. Then, too, he had impressed Graham with his authority at Galveston, so it may have been in his interest to give the impression that he, Jean, was the elder and senior brother. Perhaps motivated by this misinterpretation of the letter, Stafford, Graham, p. 79, states that there was a third brother and that his name was Gabriel. No record of a Gabriel Laffite can be found.
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