The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1895-05-11

49, NNAN
the islands and inlets hat border the
Georgia coast line-stories of phantom
ships, of lost vessels, of hidden treas
ures. Some of these have been handed
down from generation unto generation.
until they are familiar to the children
OF every household.
A story of this kind 1 picked up some
6a.;s ago from an old islander near
Daric1. He had tilted his chair under
the heavy umbrage of a spreading live
oak and told the story apparently
without any mental exertion. iistlessly
and dreamily, as if it awakened fond
memories.
"Lafitte. You know Laftte, the great
Barbarian pirate who turned the gulf
into a pool of blood and strewed the
seas with the heads ofcountless victims;
the same man who seized the boat car
rying the beautiful daughter of Aaron
Burr to New York from New Orleans
and kept her a captive in his tropical
retreat; who enlisted in the service of
the United States against Great Britain
in the war of 1912, and was pronounced
by Gen. Andrew Jackson to be the
most daring sea captain that ever
flashed sword from scabbard, well,
that's Lafitte-that's the nan l mean,
and he started his career right here on
the Georgia coast.
1T was a love scrape-thats gen.
orally the matter with young fellows,
you know.
Now. history makes an error. That
mans right name was Wilson, Morti-
mer Wilson, and, instead of coming
from France, as everybody supposes,
he was an American. pure and simple,
and hailed from New York, WestcheS-
ter county. There lived not very far
from here at the plantation of a rich
rice grower two girls who were said to
be more beautiful than any of the
maidens of the south. They had every
thing hat their hearts could desire
and were queens among their sex.
1T was way back yonder when the
nineteenth century vas just begin
ming to sprout, and this part of the
country was owned by one or wv men.
Wilson, or rather Lafitte, came
south. He was only nineteen years of
age, and came as a representative of
his uncle's mercantile house, which
was doing business then with the Sa-
vannah people. The young man ar
rived, attended to his business and vas
waiting with impatience for the sailing
of the vesselwhich waste convey him to
his home again. when he vas attacked
by fever of the most severe kind. His
reason was gone entirely for the time.
at happened that the Savannah
house where the young man had traded
wa the property of Col. Mornton, the
father OF one of the beautiful girls of
whom 1 have told you. Her first cousin
lived with her.
''Here the young man was removed,
and for weeks he suffered in delirium.
When he awoke from the stupor, and
the first CLEANS of returning ~recol2ec-
ton and imagination began to shoot
across his bewildered mind, there came
a vision more lovely than he ever
dreamed of-Mary Notwithstanding
about like an angel of mercy, and ad-
ministering to all his wants with On
sideration and love; for the gradual
emaciation of that splendid physique
had called forth her pity, and very
often that awakens love. His health
returned slowly, but the days were
never more delightfully."- spent than
those which glided away in the magic
company of the fair maiden. She had
gained an ascendency over his whole
soul,
Il believe that the other young lady
who lived with the Morntons came