The Sumter banner. [volume] (Sumterville, S.C.) 1846-1855, 1849-10-10
aiaseslaateotea.
From, the, N. o. Daily Delta.
TRUE HISTORY OF
Laftte, The Pirate,

Many thrilling romances have been
written, and much bad poetry pcrpctra-
ted, upon the life and adventures
piratical and bloody dceds-thc hair
breadth escapes and marvellous exploits
ofLaGttc, the famed pirate of the Gulf,
who succeeded our illustrious friend
Sancho Panza, as Governor of Barat-
aria. Ingraham, Lippard, and some
half dozen other spawners Of startling
narratives, have tried their hands ct
Lafitte, and in due course of time, we
may expect that the eternal Sanes will
catch him in his widespread net, cast
for heroes and bloody incidents.
1t is very repulsivc to our feelings t.
be compelled, by sense Of duty as
stern historians, to dissipate much Of
this romance. 1t atflicts us to the soul
to give up dclusion. q romance which
has nourishcd our youthful fancy, and
solaced many an hour of idlcncss. 1t
is like waking from pleasant dream,
or shaking off the pleasing influence of
chloroform. 1t imposes upon us 4 du-
ty as repulsivc as that of the great his,
torian of Rome. Niebuhr who SO ruth
lessly attacked all the pleasing tradi-
tions about Romulus and Remus, the
sucking wolf, and the rape Of the Sa.
bincs, and proved that they we're mere
allegorics--not like the stories of Sin
bad the Sailor, of Baron Munchausan,
Of Captain Riley, and Counselor S.
,positive, substantial facts.
But the truth of history must be vim
dicated, as Colonel Benton once re
marked, in commencing a speech which
his opponents said was an elaborate
compound Of no.such-things. And so
VIC must, though it snap the heart
strings of our fancy, and throw into pie
our earliest traditions. avcnge the truth
of history, of many fouls wrongs has it
received at the hands Of the novclists
and false writer's, by testing some So
Der and discou,aging some sober and
discouraging truths of LArlrrN, TIE
BLOODY PIRATE OF TIE GULF.
Sir, repeat that again. we eagerly
remarked to o venerable French gen
tlcman, in whose pleasant little skif' We
were quietly tacking across Pascagou}a
Bay, not many days ago.
Did | understand you to say, that
you were intimate with Latittc, the pi-
rate, that celebrated buccanccr, that
bloody pirate Of the Gulf, the terror of
whose name spread from sea to sea, un-
til, with his long, low, black schooner,
that outsailed the wind, he became
such an object of dread that mothers
silenced their children by whispering
his awful namc?'
We were out of breath with excite
ment and curiosity, az we finished this
comprehensive interrogatory, and turn
ed to the smiling, good naturcd face of
the elderly Frenchman.
'Yes,' he commenced, with torturing q
slowness and deliberation, Il knew the
man that land-lubbers have written
such wild stories about, though should
. never recognized him in your dcscrip-
ton. He was nothing of that sort
WAS he not a pirate! we exclaimed,
with biting scepticism and defiance.
Nothing of the sort
Nor freebooter, buccanccr, a
skimmer Of the seas, with flag of cross
bones, and q long, low, black, rakish
yessel?'
Nothing Of that sort
Wen, Sir, you astound me. Per.
haps you will not deny that he ever
called o shlgos cut a throat?'