The Pirates Laffite

by William C. Davis

  56. Interrogation of George Schumph, November 26, 1821, Notarias Publicas, Protocolos del Año 1821, Archivo de la Ciudad de Merída de Yucatan, Merída, Mexico.

  57. Libel of NicholásJosé Villavaso, September 7, 1820, Don N. J. Villavaso vs. Intrépido, Case #1608, NAFW.

  58. [John H. Brown], "Early Life in the Southwest, No. IV, Captain John McHenry, Pioneer of Texas," DeBow's Review, XV (December 1853), pp. 572—73. This account, though written thirty-three years after the fact, is remarkably accurate. Brown said that when he was young he lived near John McHenry at Indianola, Texas, and "in my home in Indianola, Texas, in 1853" McHenry told him his story of serving with Laffite. Brown wrote it down and showed it to McHenry for his approval before it was published in DeBow's. "Only in regard to precise dates did his memory seem uncertain," Brown recalled (Brown, Texas, I, pp. 77–78n. McHenry did confuse dates and time spans, and a few names, such as when he referred to James Rollins as Thomas Rawlins. Otherwise, his account checks out perfectly against contemporary documents cited below, and forms the foundation for the balance of this account of the affair except where other sources are cited. In the original list of mutineers from General Victoria, McHenry appears as M'Kendry (Claim of Christian Ardent et al., November 16, 1820, United States vs. Brig Victoria, #1609, NAFW). A possible echo of this episode appears in the very well-informed anonymous 1863 account published in New Orleans, Daily Picayune, August 20, 1871, attributed to a man who once boarded with one of the Laffites in New Orleans. It states that Jean fitted out three vessels as privateers under Colombian papers. After six months the government changed regime in Colombia and his papers became invalid, and he became a pirate. The basic chronology is wrong, but the element of the expiration of commissions fits with the McHenry account.

  59. Statement of G. B. Duplessis, August 12, 1820, N. J. Villavaso vs. Intrepide, Case #1608, NAFW.

  60. John Dick to Dominic Hall, n.d., United States vs. Brig Victoria, Case #1609, NAFW.

  61. Isaac T. Preston protest, n.d.,Villavaso vs. Intrepide, #1608; Claim of Christian Ardent et al., November 16, 1820, United States vs. Brig Victoria, #1609, NAFW.

  62. Report January 18, 1821, Independence of the Spanish Colonies Files, Catalogue 3886, Archivos General de Indias, Seville, cited in Gary Fretz, "Laffites Legacy," Laffite Society Chronicles, IX (February 2003), p. 18.

  63. Rieder and Rieder, Ship Lists, pp. 39, 41.

  64. Martinez to Apodaca, October 22, December 22, 1820, Blake, Vol. XVI, pp. 181, 190–91; Martinez to Commandant at La Bahía, October 21, 1820, Supplement, VIII, p. 242; Ramon Quirk and James Gaines to Martinez, September 20, 1820, X, p. 208.

  65. Examination of Moses Austin, December 23, 1820, Eugene C. Barker, ed., The Austin Papers: Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1919 (Washington, 1924), Part 1, p. 370.

  66. Today Old Providence has such landmarks as Buccaneer Point and Aury Channel, vestiges of its colorful past.

  67. Interrogation of George Schumph, November 26, 1821, Notarias Publicas, Protocolos del Año 1821, Archivo de la Ciudad de Merída de Yucatan, Merida, Mexico. Vogel believes that Pierre and Jean went to Old Providence, where both might have served under Aury in his abortive attacks on Central American ports in 1820–21. Robert Vogel, "Some Background Concerning Laffite's Departure from Galveston," Laffite Society Chronicles, V (August 1999), [pp. 7–8].

  68. Marie Louisa Villard to Antoine Abat, July 27, 1820, Notary Philippe Pedesclaux, Vol. 16, item 411, NONA.

  69. Marie Louise Villard to Antoine Abat, August 2, 1820, Philippe Pedesclaux, Vol. 16, item 429, NONA.

  70. In the 1822 New Orleans City Directory the corner of Bourbon and St. Philip does not show Marie Louise Villard as an occupant, so she did not stay on as a renter.

  71. Joseph G. Tregle, Jr., Louisiana in the Age of Jackson: A Clash of Cultures and Personalities (Baton Rouge, LA, 1999), p. 14.

  72. It is difficult to tell exactly where Marie Villard made her new home. No transaction of purchase has emerged. There were numerous free women of color named Marie Louise or Maria Louisa who appeared in the 1820 Census for the city, and it is almost impossible to pinpoint which is her, since they are listed merely by given names. Those roughly matching her age lived on Esplanade, Rue de la Quartier, and Dauphine streets. The 1830 Census shows Marie Louise Villard living on Esplanade, however, and that is surely her (United States Census, 1830, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, p. 28).

  73. Notary Joseph Arnaud, Vol. 1, item 83; Maire to Rene Broussard, October 30, 1820, Notary Philippe Pedesclaux, Vol. 18, item 1789, NONA.

  74. Faye, "Aury," p. 684.

  75. Marie gave birth to Joseph Laffite on May 2, 1821 (Nolan and Dupont, eds., Sacramental Records of the Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, Volume 14, 1820–1821, p. 228). This means she must have conceived sometime in early August 1820.

  76. Charleston, Courier, November 16, 1820, February 26, 1821. When the Hiram arrived in Charleston in November, three passengers were reported as debarking: Messrs. Oliver, Smith, and Francisco. It seems safe to conclude that with his pronounced accent, Pierre would not have assumed an Anglo-Saxon name like Smith or Oliver.

  77. Charleston, Courier, December 2, 25, 1820.

  TWENTY-ONE

  1. James R. Schenck, The Directory and Stranger's Guide, for the City of Charleston ... 1822 (Charleston, SC, 1822), n.p.

  2. Marie Jeanne Lemaitre Lambert to Joseph Prados, November 4, 1820, Notary Philippe Pedesclaux, Vol. 18, item 1825, NONA; Charleston, Times, September 20, 1817; Inward Slave Manifests for the Port of New Orleans, January-March 1822, #631, Schooner Louisa, June 1822, Roll 3, RG 36, NA.

  3. Bollaert, "Lafitte," p. 435. Lambert, called "Old L" by Bollaert, said that he saw Lafitte at Charleston in 1822 where he was then fitting out a ship to privateer against the Spanish on the Caribbean. Lambert got the year wrong, and like so many confused Pierre for Jean, but otherwise his recollection was accurate. It is tempting to identify this Lambert with the Captain Lambert of the Hiram, but there is no evidence to support a connection.

  4. Houston, Morning Star, February 8, 1842; Charleston, Courier, February 26, 1821.

  5. Charleston, Times, February 19, 1821. Atypically for Charleston, the Nancy Eleanor's, date of sailing does not appear in the press, which may be a sign that she tried to do so undetected after clearing customs.

  6. Charleston, Courier, February 26, 1821.

  7. John B. Lemaitre to the editor, February 24, 1821, Charleston, Times, February 24, 1821.

  8. Houston, Morning Star, February 8, 1842. This account of an interview with Manuel López came originally from the Matagorda, Colorado Gazette of some earlier date. It is very accurate, erring only in recalling the date as "the second year of Mexican independence," which would be 1822, instead of 1821. Thomas Duke to Ferdinand Pinckard, May 1843, in B[ollaert], "Lafitte," p. 445, recounts an 1837 conversation with López in which Duke was given virtually the same account, and Bollaert spoke with López in 1842. In 1841 Duke told the same story of the López interview to J. H. Kuykendall, as recounted in J. H. Kuykendall, "Reminiscences of Early Texans," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, VI (January 1903), p. 252.

  9. John H. Lee to Porter, May 12, 1824, Charleston, Southern Patriot, July 21, 1824.

  10. Alice D. Le Plongeon, Here and There in Yucatan. Miscellanies (New York, 1885), pp. 6–7. Like most accounts, this one speaks of a single Laffite, the assumption being that it was Jean. However, from the personality traits described, it is evident that the recollections gleaned by the authors have combined both brothers into one.

  11. New Orleans, Louisiana Gazette, March 14, 1822.

  12. Precise identification of Pierre's mistress seems impossible, but it is safe to say that she did exist. George Schumph testified on November 10, 1821, that Pierre was attended by an "American woman" named "Lucia." He did not state her relationship to Laffite, but a romantic liaison can be inferred from the fact that she was w
ith him on Cancún, came with him to Las Bocas, attended him through his illness, and accompanied his body to Dzilam de Bravo. (Statement of George Schumph, November 10, 1821, Sumaria Instruida contra el ingles don Jorge Schumph, Notarias Publicas, Protocolos del Año 1821, Archivo de la Ciudad de Merída de Yucatan, Merída, Mexico). Recollections of Laffite (the sources generally assume it is Jean, but it was Pierre) having a mistress at Mugeres appeared at least as early as 1842, in John L. Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Yucatan (New York, 1843), II, pp. 282–83. This source said that she was a widow from Mobile named "Señora del Norte," and was still living in Dzilam de Bravo at that time. A century later the local oral tradition said that the mistress's name was Lucia, and that she died in childbirth at Dzilam de Bravo having a daughter (John Burton Thompson, "The Legend of Lafitte," Baton Rouge, Morning Advocate, October 11, 1953). In another twenty years local lore expanded her name to Lucille Allen (Luis A. Ramirez Aznar, "One Answer to the Lafitte Riddle," Dixie Magazine, January 2, 1972, pp. 6–7).

  13. Joseph Lafitte, son of Pierre and Marie Louise Villarde, born May 2, 1821 Book of free colored. Nolan and Dupont, eds., Sacramental Records of the Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, Volume 14, 1820–1821, p. 228.

  14. Quoted in Departamento de Historia Naval, Historia Marítima Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1994), V, p. 495.

  15. Statement of death of Louis Aury, n.d., Aury Papers, CAHUT.

  16. Gregory to Secretary of Navy, November 29, 1821, M-148, RG 45, NA.

  17. John S. Kendall, "Piracy in the Gulf of Mexico, 1816–1823," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, VIII (July 1925), p. 345.

  18. Pensacola, Floridian, September 15, 22, 1821.

  19. Faye, "Privateersmen," p. 1082; Beardslee, Piracy, p. 51.

  20. Francis Gregory to Secretary of War, October 18, 1821, Letters Received by the Secretary of the Navy from Officers Below the Rank of Commander, 1802–1884, M-148, RG 45, NA.

  21. Gaspar López to Martinez, July 1, 1822, Blake, Supplement, VIII, p. 280, Gaspar López to Jose Felix Trespalacios, December 3, 1820, Supplement, XV, pp. 229–30; Francisco Garcia to Martinez, November n, 1821, Raphael Gonzales to Martinez, January 1, 1822, Blake, Supplement, VIII, p. 258, Béxar Archives, CAHUT.

  22. John Sibley to Josiah Stoddard Johnston, June 26, 1821, Josiah Stoddard Johnston Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

  23. Indictments, July 27, 1821, United States vs. Jean Louis, Ligourgne, Hippolite, Arnould, Difulho, and Cadet, Cases #1728-1733, NAFW.

  24. Henry Johnson, James Brown, and Josiah S. Johnston to Calhoun, December 11, 1821, W. Edwin Hemphill, ed., The Papers of John C. Calhoun, Volume VI, 1821–1822 (Columbia, SC, 1972), p. 564.

  25. John Sibley to George Sibley, October 29, 1821, G. P. Whittington, "Dr. John Sibley of Natchitoches, 1757–1832," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, X (October 1927), p. 507.

  26. New York, Spectator, August n, 1820; Patterson to Secretary of Navy, September 10, 1821, M-125, NA.

  27. Pensacola, Floridian, March 30, 1822.

  28. Patterson to Secretary of Navy, November 24, 1821, M-125, NA.

  29. Pensacola, Floridian, December 31, 1821.

  30. Statement of Miguel Molas, November 4, 13, 1821, Sumaria Instruida contra el ingles don Jorge Schumph, Notarias Publicas, Protocolos del Año 1821, Archivo de la Ciudad de Mérida de Yucatan, Mérida, Mexico.

  31. Statement of Thomas Pino, November 26, 1821, Ibid.

  32. Statement of Miguel Molas, November 4, 13, 1821, Ibid.

  33. Statement of Miguel Molas, November 4, 13, 1821, Interrogation of George Schumph, November 26, 1821, Ibid.

  34. See Michael Antochiw, director of the Cultural Institute at Mérida, Yucatán, to Dorothy Karilanovic, August 22, 1995, Laffite Society Research Collection, Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center, Liberty, Texas. It is possible that Pierre was wounded, though the documents in the Schumph investigation mentioned by Antochiw do not specify any cause of death.

  35. Thomas Duke to Ferdinand Pinckard, May 1843, B[ollaert], "Lafitte," p. 445. On July 12, 1837, S. Rhoads Fisher visited this area and spoke with a Mexican Indian named Gregorio who told him that Laffite died at a place called "Lasbocas," which today is Bocas de Dzilam. S. Rhoads Fisher to Mirabeau B. Lamar, May 1, 1838, Lamar Papers, TSL.

  36. Statement of George Schumph, November 10, 1821, Sumaria Instruida contra el ingles don Jorge Schumph, Notarías Publicas, Protocolos del Ano 1821, Archivo de la Ciudad de Mérida de Yucatan, Mérida, Mexico. Schumph does not give the date of Pierre's death, but his arrival in Dzilam on November 10 suggests that the death did not occur more than a day earlier. He also says that Pierre was attended by a woman named "Lucia," which would connect with the later stories of a Lucille Allen. While some have concluded that Pierre was wounded by Molas, López merely says that Pierre was "taken sick" (Houston, Morning Star; February 8, 1842), and only Gregorio spoke of fever (S. Rhoads Fisher to Mirabeau B. Lamar, May i, 1838, Lamar Papers, TSL). Dyer, in the Galveston, News, September 3, 1922, said he was told by two men that Laffite died of yellow fever in Yucatán in about 1826, though as usual Dyer carries little credibility.

  37. Several versions of Pierre's death survived in local oral tradition, most with some links to genuine recollection. Alice D. Le Plongeon, Here and There in Yucatan. Miscellanies (New York, 1885), p. 7, recounted a story of a force of Spaniards—Molas—being sent against him at sea, and Pierre's vessel being run aground, after which he took a handful of men and fled but they were surrounded on a sandbar and all were killed.

  38. Statement of Cristobal Carrillo, November 10, 1821, Statement of José Gregorio Cervera, November 10, 1821, Sumaria Instruida contra el ingles don Jorge Schumph, Notarias Publicas, Protocolos del Año 1821, Archivo de la Ciudad de Mérida de Yucatan, Mérida, Mexico; Houston, Morning Star, February 8, 1842.

  39. Statement of George Schumph, November 10, 1821, Statement of José Trinidad Lisama, November 16, 1821, Sumaria Instruida contra el ingles don Jorge Schumph, Notarias Publicas, Protocolos del Año 1821, Archivo de la Ciudad de Mérida de Yucatan, Mérida, Mexico.

  40. Baltimore, Nile's Register, XXI, December 22, 1821, p. 258; Information derived [from] James Campbell now residing on the Galveston Bay, 10th June 1855, Lamar Papers, TSL. This account, again a recollection by Campbell of what he was told in 1836 by William Cochrane, matches better with this incident than the earlier recapture of a Laffite prize detailed in chapter 20.

  41. New Orleans, Louisiana Courier, November 29, 1822. The best account of this episode is Jean L. Epperson, "The Final Years of Jean Laffite," Laffite Society Chronicles, VII (October 2001), passim. Porto Principe is today Camagüey.

  42. Epperson, "Final Years of Jean Laffite," [p. 2].

  43. H. A. Bullard to Johnston, February 2, 1822, Johnston Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

  44. New Orleans, Louisiana Courier, March 8, April 29, 1822.

  45. Pensacola, Floridian, March 4, 16, 1822; Salem, MA, Register, February 27, 1822. This El Bravo is not the same vessel as Laffite's Le Brave.

  46. Pensacola, Floridian, April 6, 1822.

  47. New Orleans, Louisiana Gazette, June 18, 1822.

  48. Pensacola, Floridian, March 4, 1822.

  49. Logbook of the USS Alligator, April 14, 1822, Logs of U.S. Naval Ships, Entry 118, Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel, RG 24, NA.

  50. Pensacola, Floridian, June 15, 1822.

  51. Logbook of the USS Alligator, Entry 118, RG 24, NA.

  52. Logbook of the Belvedere, May 2, 1822, New Orleans, Courier de la Louisiane, May 22, 1822. Logbook of the USS Alligator, May 2, 1822, Entry 118, RG 24, NA, makes no mention of the action of May 2 as related in the log of the Belvedere. New Orleans Courier, May 22, 1822, says the ships USS Alligator and USS Grampus chased Laffite off Sugar Key, Cuba, along with other pirates.

  53. Bogotá, Colombia, Gaceta de Colombia, August 24, 1823.

  54. Ibid., February 10, 1822.

  55. Ibi
d., December 1, 1822. It is possible that the General Santander was Laffite's own vessel, the one that brought him to Cartagena, and that he changed her name to that of a Colombian hero on transferring her to national service, just as Beluche had changed his La Popa to the General Bolivar when he entered Bolivar's service in 1816. There is no specific evidence for this, however. The only source bearing on the General Santandera history states that she left Santiago, Cuba, to come to Cartagena, and it seems unlikely that Laffite would have been able to take a vessel out of a Cuban port. Bolivar later claimed that he purchased the General Santander.

  56. Bogotá, Colombia, Gaceta de Colombia, December 1, 1822.

  57. Philadelphia, National Gazette and Literary Register, September 5, 1822; New York, National Advocate, September 5, November 22, 1822; Boston, Independent Chronicle and Boston Patriot, January 25, 1823.

  58. New York, National Advocate, November 22, 1822.

  59. Boston, Independent Chronicle and Boston Patriot, January 25, 1823.

  60. New Orleans, Courier de la Louisiane, November 29, 1822.

  61. Wilkins and Linton to Johnston, November 26, 1822, New Orleans, Johnston Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

  62. Charleston, Courier, November 27, 28, December 22, 1822.

  63. New York, National Advocate, December 13, 1822.

  64. Porter, Memoirs, p. 271.

  65. Charleston, Courier, March 8, November 28, 1822.

  66. Garcia to Apodaca, September 23, 1820, Legajo 1900, AGI-Newberry.

  67. Bogotá, Colombia, Gaceta de Colombia, April 20, 1823. There are several variant accounts of Laffite's death, but only the one in the Bogotá paper is close to an original source, being based on an earlier article in the Gaceta de Cartajena, number 63, which has not been found. It would have been a report freshly gleaned on the arrival of the General Santander in her home port after the action. An account dated April 10 from Porter's squadron appeared in the Washington, Gazette, April 23, 1823, Baltimore, Nile's Weekly Register, April 26, 1823, and Portsmouth, NH, Journal, April 26, 1823, stating that it was a British warship that took a vessel "commanded by the celebrated La Fitte." He had refused to surrender and instead "the pirate hoisted the bloody flag and cried no quarters, and none were shewd," the slain including Laffite and sixty of his men. It is clearly a garbled account, especially since it says Laffite's ship was boarded and captured off Key West, Florida. This is probably the source for Elims, Pirates, pp. 79–80, who said in 1837 that Laffite ran into a British vessel. Elims went on to say that Laffite was hit in the leg and abdomen, but continued fighting even as his ship was being boarded, which did not happen. "Thus perished Lafitte," said Elims, "a man superior in talent, in knowledge of his profession, in courage, and moreover in physical strength; but unfortunately his reckless career was marked with crimes of the darkest dye" (p. 82).