The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1873-08-02
Finally, however, after delightful
weeks sojourn at this so.csslled "Pi-
rates Lair" Colonel Grymes returned

TateS 1I$tlT, SOAOuCA 0EyIue2S IStuCuCN
with the doubloons to the city, and
ever afterward when intorrogated rs te
Lafitte and his confederates, always de
tlemen he had ever met outside of old
Virginia. And from this authority W.
derived the assurance that Jean Lafittt
and his brothers were never pirates mol
even seafaring mon, but merely shrewd
spectators and operators I'm free trade
and privateering wherein, however
they had no further agency than to re-
ceive and dispose Of the goods cap.
tured under letters Of mark by vessels
chartered by them, pursuits far less
criminal or immoral than such as arc
nowadays rewarded with office and
Radical honors and prestige.
So fur from obtaining these or any
other recognition of even the meritori-
GUS and invaluable services rendered
by Lafitte and his followers in tho de-
fense OF this city, they met the COM
mon fate of such benehctors, Of being
prescribed and despoiled by certain
avaricious officials, who broke up their
establishment, seized and appropria-
ted their vessels and property, and ut
terly impoverished these once rich and
prosperous free-traders. They were
them fled the country, and may have
fallen into loose ways and sought to
trade upon the name of I.afitte, there
by giving circulation to the fictitious
stories and multiplying the name and
form of the Hypothetical pirate. Others
remained in the city and took to hon
est and regular pursuits, and several
prospered and became rich and impor-
tant personages. Two Of them, who
were famous fighting men, You and
Bluche, managed to secure the admir-
alton and respect of General Jackson
to such n degree that he gave the lat
ter, Bluche, high certificate and re-
commendation, which procured him
an appointment to the command of the
fleet of one of the South American
republics, and the other oil Dominique
was the first person the General In.
quired for on his last visit to the city.
He lived to an advanced age, in great
poverty, but with undiminished pride
in his achievements AS IL warrior, and
at his death was buried i'll the St
Louis Cemetery, where pompous
quotation from Voltaire's Henriade
| testifies to his greatness AS n hero and
| warrior, "The victor in Il hundred
fights on sea and land.'
Such is plainly and briefly the rea
| history of the Lafittes and the Barra
tarians which, however, has been re
jected by the multitude, and the ia,
more exciting and attractive version O
the Ledger novelist school preferred
thereto.
HIS END.
1t was, we believe, iu 1917 that, hay
ing gathered the remnants of his once
large possessions, Latitte chartered q
| small vessel, to proceed on trading
voyage to st. Thomas. He was never
again seen or heard Of. Thore were
severe storms in the Gulf about that
time, and the vessel was doubtless
wrecked in one of them. Not REM
nant Of her was ever found.
Thus perished Jean Lafitte, the
Blacksmith of Bourbon street, who
has been so falsely maligned as a des-
peratc and bloody pirate by audacious
fiction mongers, intent on making n
few dollars, by ignobly pandering to a
morbid taste for ruffianly deeds, scenes
and charactcrs-that singular prefer
ence which our imaginative and cx-
citable people have for sensational and
|sanguinary fiction over the sober truths
and realities OF honest and faithful
history.