51. Onís to Cienfuegos, November 25, 1818, Legajo 1898, AGI-Newberry.
52. Adams, Memoirs, November 20, 1818, IV, pp. 175—76.
53. Adams to Graham, December 4, 1817, M-50, RG 59, NA.
54. Dabbs, "Additional Notes," p. 355.
55. Martinez to Commanding General, September 4, 7, 1818, Blake, XVII, pp. 136–39; Martinez to Apodaca, October 2, 1818, XVI, pp. 66–67.
56. Report of Juan de Castañeda, November 24, 1818, Blake, LIII, pp. 108, 114, 119.
57. Castañeda to General in Chief of the Troops of Galveston, October 13, 1818, Blake, LIII, pp. 133–37.
58. José Sandoval to Martinez, October 20, 1818, Blake, LIII, pp. 128, 129.
59. Rigaud to Castañeda, October 17, 1818, Blake, LIII, pp. 137–40.
60. Castañeda to Antoine Rigaud, October 19, 1818, Blake, LIII, pp. 140–41.
61. Castañeda to "The First Authority Depending on the Congress of the United States," October 13, 1818, Blake, LIII, pp. 141–42.
62. Report of Castañeda, November 24, 1818, Blake, LIII, pp. 108, 114, 119.
63. Martinez to Apodaca, November 11, 1818, Blake, XVI, p. 70, November 12, 1818, pp. 71–73.
64. Martinez to Captain General, November 27, 1818, Taylor, The Letters of Antonio Martinez, p. 197.
65. Dabbs, "Additional Notes," p. 356. This comes from a circa 1819 letter by an anonymous refugee.
66. Girard, Adventures, pp. 87—88; Ratchford, Champ D'Asile, pp. 163–64; Betje Black Klier, "Champ d Asile, Texas," François Lagarde, The French in Texas: History, Migration, Culture (Austin, TX, 2003), p. 89.
67. Girard, Adventures, p. 89.
68. Minutes, December 17, 1818, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFVV.
69. Gardien, "Champ d'Asile," pp. 258–59.
70. A story from the Champ d'Asile episode appeared in 1892, apparently originating as a recollection passed on by the son of Dr. Felix Formento, an Italian who acted as a physician for the settlers (Gardien, "Champ d'Asile," p. 268). In its earliest known variant, around November 1818 just prior to the final evacuation, Laffite sent for Formento to come to his dwelling to minister to his daughter, who was suffering a typhoid or similar affliction. Formento stayed with Laffite for several weeks treating the girl, who finally recovered. Laffite rewarded him handsomely and gave him transport to New Orleans, probably on the sloop taking the sick ("Dr. Felix Formento, Sr.," Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana [Chicago, 1892], I, pp. 410–11). By 1892 this was a seventy-four-year-old recollection if it came directly from Formento himself. Assuming that Formento did indeed tell such a story, and there is no reason to doubt him, as he achieved considerable local and national repute in his medical career, it could still have undergone extensive warping due to frequent retelling and old age. For instance, Jean Laffite is not known to have had a daughter, nor any children but the son Jean Pierre, aged just three in 1818. If an incident like this did take place, then more likely the woman was the young slave earlier seen living with him. The always fertile Dyer collected a story sometime prior to 1926 that Jean had brought to Galveston a daughter of Pierre's by his mulatto "housekeeper" in New Orleans, the same daughter whom Jean supposedly took east with him in 1815 to send to school at Quebec. Unfortunately, she contracted tuberculosis after the hurricane and died (Joseph O. Dyer in "Jean Lafitte, Buccaneer, Had Most Colorful Career," Galveston, Daily News, September 19, 1926). Finally, in Simone de la Souchère Delery's heavily fictionalized Napoleons Soldiers in America (Gretna, LA, 1972), pp. 75–77, the episode took place in New Orleans at Pierre and Marie's house, and again it was Jean's daughter whom Formento saved, this time from yellow fever.
In the end, the story should be taken as little more than confirmation that Laffite still had a female companion with him, as attested earlier in the year by eyewitness contemporary evidence, and as will be reaffirmed in 1819 by others.
71. Dabbs, "Additional Notes," p. 356; Galveston, Daily News, May 25, 1879. B[ollaert,] "Lafitte," p. 444, apparently also refers to this incident, though Bollaert's would have been a different informant from the source in Dabbs.
72. Fatio to Noeli, August 31, 1818, Onís to Pizarro, November 22, 1818, Ibid.
73. Benjamin Ogle Tayloe, Our Neighbors on La Fayette Square, Anecdotes and Reminiscences (Washington, 1872), pp. 22, 24.
74. Adams to Thompson, May 20, 1819, T829, RG 45, NA.
75. Vincent Garrot [Garros] to Pierre Laffite, November 17, 1818, Legajo 1898, AGI-Newberry.
76. List of Vessels armed or equipped in the Ports of the United States or in their Jurisdiction, agreeably to Documents deposited in the Archives of H. C. Majesty's Ministry, November 16, 1818, List of Spanish vessels captured by Pirates and brought into the United States, November 16, 1818, enclosure in Onís to Adams, November 16, 1818, M-59, RG 59, NA.
77. Onís to Cienfuegos, November 22, 25, 1818, Legajo 1898, AGI-Newberry.
78. Apodaca to Secretary of State, April 30, 1819, Papeles de Estado, Audiencia de Mexico, Legajo 14, AGI-Newberry.
79. Projects and proposals made by N. 13, n.d., enclosed with Onís to Cienfoegos, November 25, 27, 1818, Legajo 1898, AGI-Newberry.
80. Ibid.
81. Fatio to Noeli, August 31, 1818, Ibid.
82. Onís to Pierre Laffite, November 21, 1818, Ibid.
83. Onís to Cienfoegos, November 25, 1818, Ibid.
84. Apodaca to Venadito, April 30, 1819, in Faye, Privateers, p. 203.
85. George Wilson, captain of the privateer Tucuman, to the minister of war, September 10, 1817, Buenos Ayres, Gazette, November 22, 1817, extracts from the Buenos Ayres Gazette, November-December, 1817, M-59, RG 59, NA.
86. Warren, Sword, p. 228.
87. Information derived from Col. S. M. Williams respecting Lafitte, n.d., Lamar Papers, TSL.
88. Samuel M. Williams said circa 1850 that "Lafitte, his father & brother, bought the canvass to make his sails of S. M. Williams Uncle in Baltimore" (From Sam M. Williams, n.d., Lamar Papers, TSL). See also Margaret Swett Henson, Samuel May Williams, Early Texas Entrepreneur (College Station, TX, 1976), pp. 6–7. Later recollections by James and Mary Campbell maintained that Campbell made the trip to Baltimore to see to the completion of a fast new privateer. It is possibly complete imagination, though the fact of Pierre's being in Baltimore at this time at least in part for this purpose suggests that Campbell's story springs from a germ of truth. Perhaps he actually accompanied Pierre on the journey. W. T. Block, "A Buccaneer Family in Spanish East Texas: A Biographical Sketch of Captain James and Mary Sabinal Campbell," Texas Gulf Historical & Biographical Record, XXVII (November 1991), p. 85.
89. A Summary Statement of Money and Property taken out of Spanish vessels, November 16, 1818, M-59, RG 59, NA.
90. DeForest to Manuel Lynch, January 6, 1819, DeForest Family Papers, Yale University Library, New Haven, CT, does not explicitly say that Laffite met with him, but it is implied in the content. Similarly, no source places Pierre Laffite in Charleston at this time. However, the fact that it was a major center for privateering outfitters, coupled with Pierre's period of time spent there the following year, suggest that while in the East he would have made an exploratory trip there to establish necessary business contacts.
91. Jean Laffite to James Long, July 7, 1819, Lamar Papers, TSL, says that Pierre was daily expected in Galveston after his return from the "North." No more precise record of the time of Pierre's return has been found.
NINETEEN
1. Petition of Jean Lafitte, Case file #2289 James Lafitte vs. Juan Gonzales, Parish Court Records, NOPL. The loan was made March 12, 1819, to Juan Gonzales.
2. Antoine Abat to Marie Villard, April 30, 1819, Notary Philippe Pedesclaux, Vol. 7, item 339, NONA.
3. Fatio to Apodaca, May 8, n, 1819, Papeles de Estado, Audiencia de Mexico, Legajo 14, AGI-Newberry.
4. John Jamison to Calhoun, August 25, 1819, from Natchitoches, W. Edwin Hemphill, ed., The Papers of John C. Calhoun, Volume IV, 1819–1820 (Columbia, SC, 1969), pp.
274–75.
5. James Long to Jean Laffite, June 24, 1819, Lamar Papers, TSL.
6. Long's June 24 letter to Jean is contained in an August 31, 1819, report by Apodaca, Papeles de Estado, Audiencia de Mexico, Legajo 14, AGI-Newberry.
7. Jean Laffite to Long, July 7, 1819, Lamar Papers, TSL. This is the signed original in French. It is evident that Laffite did not write the body text, but only signed the document.
8. Petition of Jean Lafitte, July 26, 1819, Case file #2289 James Lafitte vs. Juan Gonzales, Parish Court Records, NOPL. The petition is signed and dated in New Orleans and places Jean there at that time.
9. Pierre was in New Orleans as of July 28 (Alexander Choppin to Pierre Laffite, July 28, 1819, Notary Philippe Pedesclaux, Vol. 8, item 559, NONA), and was back by August 26 (Adelina Maire to Pierre Laffite, August 26, 1819, Notary Michele DeArmas, Vol. 18, Act 25, NONA).
10. Latter-day sources give names for several supposed Laffite corsairs at this time, but there is no contemporary documentary corroboration for most of them. B[ollaert], "Lafitte," p. 442, says that he had the Pride, a fourteen-gun schooner; two feluccas; and an armed boat called the Culebra that Laffite used to be rowed about the bay. Charles Ellms, The Pirates Own Book, or Authentic Narratives of the Lives, Exploits, and Executions of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers (Portland, ME, 1837), p. 77, appears to be the origin of a tradition that Laffite also had a privateer named the Jupiter, but there is no evidence for this. A corsair of that name did call at Galveston at least once, and there are other references at the time to a Jupiter, but they make it clear that Laffite was not the owner (Baltimore, Nile's Weekly Register, February 5, 1820, pp. 395–96).
11. Commission, n.d. [August 18, 1819], Ibid.; Nile's Register, XVII (January 29, 1820), p. 376.
12. Jean Laffite, instructions to Jean Desfarges, August 18, 1819, United States vs. John Desfarges, et al., Case #1440, NAFW.
13. Charter of Partition for the Mexican Corsair named La Brave, August 18, 1819, Ibid.
14. Patterson to Lawrence Kearny, October 21, 1819, M-125, RG 45, NA.
15. Apodaca to Secretary of State, January 31, April 30, 1819, Papeles de Estado, Audiencia de Mexico, Legajo 14, AGI-Newberry.
16. Martinez to unknown, August 23, 1819, Taylor, The Letters of Antonio Martinez, p. 255.
17. Neither Davis nor Lacaze appear as attorneys in the 1811 or 1822 New Orleans city directories.
18. Jean Laffite to Long, September 30, 1819, Lamar Papers, TSL. A French original and an English translation exist in the Lamar Papers, but the French version appears to be a copy as the signature does not at all resemble Laffite s.
19. Appointment of Jean Laffite, October 7, 1819, RG 45, NA. The document indicates that it was signed in Galveston, meaning Long had to be there. A somewhat questionable document in the Dienst Collection, CAHUT, purports to be an undated circa 1819 note from a John Acoguedue to Jean Laffite, which Laffite has endorsed with his name and the word "emperor." Walter Benjamin sold it to Dienst in 1927. There is absolutely no evidence of Laffite assuming such a title, even in jest, and certainly not on a monetary document.
20. Faye, "Privateersmen," pp. 1078–79; Stanley Faye, "Types of Privateer Vessels, Their Armament and Flags, in the Gulf of Mexico," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXIII (January 1940), p. 130.
21. Pierre's October 7, 1819, report seems to exist only in a French version that appears to be in Pierre's handwriting and signed "No 13" in Gobierno Superior Civil, Legajo 492, Expediente 18688, Coleccion de Documentos del Archivo Nacional de Cuba, Havana, microfilm at HNOC. It is referred to in Pierre Laffite to Juan Manuel de Cagigal, December 11, 1819, Historia, Operaciones de Guerra, Notas Diplomáticas, IV, Fondo 50, AGI-Newberry.
22. John Henry Brown, Longs Expedition (Houston, TX, 1930), pp. 1–2.
23. Marshall, Western Boundary, pp. 66–67.
24. New Orleans, Orleans Gazette, November 9, 1819.
25. Order from Béxar, October 21, 1818, Béxar Archives, CAHUT.
26. Onís to Adams, March 9, 1819, M-59, RG 59, NA.
27. Adams to Smith Thompson, May 20, 1819, Miscellaneous Records of the Office of Naval Records and Library, Private Letters, February 1, 1818-March 27, 1822, T829, RG 45, NA.
28. Ibid.
29. Patterson to Rodgers, November 1, 1818, Area 8, M-625, NA.
30. Exhibit Shewing the Names, Force and Present State & Condition of the Vessels of War of every description At New Orleans, November 1, 1818, Area 8, M-625, NA.
31. US Navy Subject File 1775–1910, File SG-Pirates, p. 57; Patterson to Smith Thompson, July 17, 21, 29, 1819, M-125, NA; Baltimore, Nile's Weekly Register, September 11, 1819, p. 31.
32. Claim, December 19, 1818, Case #1271; Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW; Faye, "Privateersmen," p. 1033; Faye, "Aury," p. 672.
33. Libel of Lorenzo Bru et al., October 16, 1819, United States vs. Filomena, Case #1437; Indictment, November 12, 1819, Bond September 15, 1819, United States vs. John Desfarges, et al., Case #1440; Libel, December 13, 1819, United States vs. Armed Schooner Bravo, Case #1450, NAFW.
34. Inventory of a Trunk captured on board the Privateer Bravo, September 22, 1819, United States vs. Filomena, Case #1437, NAFW.
35. Indictment, November 12, 1819, Jury finding, November 12, 1819, United States vs. John Desfarges et al., Case #1440, NAFW.
36. Baltimore, Nile's Weekly register, October 2, 1819, pp. 75–76.
37. Margaret Swett Henson, Samuel May Williams, Early Texas Entrepreneur (College Station, TX, 1976), pp. 6–7.
38. Pierre Lafitte vs. Estate of Guy Champlin, #1730, First Judicial Court, NOPL.
39. Deed, June 14, 1819, Notary Philippe Pedesclaux, Vol. 8, item 449, NONA. The buyer was Rosette Villard, a free woman of color. She cannot be directly linked to Marie Villard, but as all the Villards in New Orleans at the time seem to be of the same family, and she moved in one lot away from Marie's house, a connection seems a safe speculation.
40. Adelina Maire to Pierre Laffite, August 26, 1819, Notary Michele DeArmas, Vol. 18, Act 25; Alexander Choppin to Pierre Laffite, July 28, 1819, Notary Philippe Pedesclaux, Vol. 8, item 559, NONA.
41. Samuel Wilson, Jr., Impressions Respecting New Orleans by Benjamin Henry BonevalLatrobe, Diary & Sketches 1818–1820 (New York, 1951), p. 54.
42. Antoine Abat to Marie Villard, April 30, 1819, Notary Philippe Pedesclaux, Vol. 7, item 339, NONA.
43. Note of encumbrance, September 6, 1819, Notary Philippe Pedesclaux, Vol. 9, item 685, NONA.
44. Dyer heard stories that by this time Pierre Laffite was a brutal, cross-eyed ruffian, a gambler, and a drunkard. This is probably as unreliable as the rest of the Dyer tales. Galveston, Daily News, September 19, 1926.
45. Minutes, November 12, 1819, United States vs. John Desfarges, et al., Case #1440, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.
46. Testimony of John Desfarges, November 19, 1819, United States vs. John Desfarges, et al., Case #1440; Minutes, November 19, 22, 1819, United States vs. John Desfarges, et al., Case #1440. Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.
47. Information derived from Col. S. M. Williams respecting Lafitte, n.d., Lamar Papers, TSL.
48. B[ollaert], "Lafitte," pp. 441–42.
49. Pierre Laffite to Cagigal, December n, 1819, Notas Diplomaticas, Vol. 4, pp. 5off, Mexican National Archives, copy in Lamar Papers, TSL.
50. Baltimore, Nile's Weekly Register, November 27, 1819, January 22, 1820.
51. Thrasher, Galveston City Directory, p. 61.
52. John H. Heller, comp., Galveston City Directory for 1870 (Galveston, TX, 1870), p. 122.
53. B[ollaert], "Lafitte," p. 442.
54. Thrasher, Galveston City Directory, p. 62m This will be a story related by Warren Hall.
55. Bollaert, "Lafitte," pp. 442–44; Information derived [from] James Campbell now residing on the Galveston Bay, 10th June 1855, Lamar Papers, TSL.
56. Willis W. Pratt, ed., Galveston Island, or, A Few Months Off the Coast of Texas. The Journal of Francis C.
Sheridan, 1839–1840 (Austin, TX, 1954), p. 56. James Campbell's wife, Mary, recalled of Jean Laffite many years after the fact that "the old man was always on the lookout for the good of those around him." She also remembered that relations between inhabitants of the Galveston community were generally harmonious (Galveston, Daily News, May 25, 1879).
57. At an 1839 camp meeting at Caney, near Port Lavaca, Sarah Tone proclaimed herself repentant and saved, saying that in youth and middle age she had been the "wife" of Laffite at Galveston. The only Tone in Texas then was Thomas Tone, who on December 31, 1837, married Sarah Kinsey in Matagorda County. The 1850 census says she was fifty-three and was born in Kentucky. She was dead by 1860. Her story is certainly apocryphal. Journal of Jesse Hord, January 31, 1839, Macum Phelan, A History of Methodism, in Texas (Nashville, TN, 1924), p. in.
58. B[ollaert], "Lafitte," p. 442. The portion of this account that undoubtedly comes from Gaines seems to end in the paragraph immediately before mention of the mistress and son, so Bollaert may have gotten those details elsewhere.
59. Journal of John Landreth on an Expedition to the Gulf Coast, November 15, 1818-May 19, 1819, entry for January 12, 1819, T12, NA.
60. Washington, Daily National Intelligencer, November 30, 1818; "Negroes Imported," Baltimore, Nile's Register, December 12, 1818.
61. Galveston, Daily News, March 16, 1920; Thrasher, Galveston City Directory, p. 61.
62. Journal of John Landreth on an Expedition to the Gulf Coast, November 15, 1818-May 19, 1819, T12, NA.
63. John Bowie, "Early Life in the Southwest—The Bowies," DeBow's Review, I (October 1852), pp. 380–81, is the principal source for the Bowie involvement and their method of operation. Notarial records and the Web site Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy, 1718–1820 (Slave), show no great number of slave sales by the Bowies, but in March-April 1817 they sold eight; November 1818-February 1819 they sold fifteen for just over $15,000; and February-May 1820 they sold nine for $5,525. Their total slave sales recorded in the site thus amount to $24,360, considerably less than the $65,000 claimed in John Bowie's article. Of course, these are only their recorded sales. Rezin Bowie handled most of the sales, and chiefly in St. Landry Parish. The most likely alternatives for the time when their business with Laffite started would appear to be either November 1818 or March 1820.
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