The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-26
THE PIRATES DAUGHTER.
BEAUTIFUL GIRL AFFLICTED WITH
AFRICAN LEPROSY.
Then the Old Man Raised the Black
Flag of Slaughter Against Mankind
in Revenge
From the Philadelphia Times,

1 rug Oh slaughter Against mankind
| in Revenge.
From the Philadelphia Times
If ever you want to go to the Gulf from
New Orleans avoid the wheezy, splutter-
ing steamers that lie at the foot of old
st. Louis street and take a lugger man.
ned by Secilians. They win soon leave
the yellow mississippi to wind and twist
through waterways known to the fisher
men only. Through still savannahs odor,
Gus with the water hyacinth. a new plant
with stem 20 feet long that threatenes
to close navigation in the smaller bay
Gus, then dense forests of Columnar cy-
press, SO still that you can hear your
heart beat, and then plantation laid out
like checker board and bounded by thick
! hedges of Cherokee rose.
Far away you see pointed roofs of grass
rising above the latanier palmetto) and
your guide tells you, Dose are Malay
village, what come from the Philippine
Islands. They speak Tagal and Spanish:
dere is some girls Like Greek statues
done in bronze are the women who watch
you urom the Shore and as motionless.
/ 1hey nave eyes of a dead black utterly
without flash or light, and remind one of
a serpent. Now long row of huts with
stages rising out of the water filled with
tsh drying. And here "Ah Wing" rules
lie has the trade for thirty miles around
trusts everybody and gets his cash. while
| the town merchants thirst for his blood
Tor ne IS quickly absorbing all the money
| made along the river
NOW enters the Fish Cadiun" the de-
scendant of the Acadians, who were driven
from nova Scotia in 1885, a pitiful race
scourSed by malaria and the horrible len
rosy. Leaving the chenieres behind the
country opens the lug fills with a boom
| ana the salt air from the ocean fills the
lungs. A grove of mighty live oaks draped
win moss, long white beach on which
me white caps are breaking. a mass of
dull red bricks, and like pillar in the dis
rance, the white light of Barrataria. a
beacon to the mariner, known from Tex
as TO Grand Pass and this is Grande Isle
the largest of the islands on the coast
and the loveliest.
sheltered from the sea breezes by a
grove of oaks is the old mansion built of
orlck, eighty feet long and widely porched
on every side with great windows for
nght ana ventilation, and this is the Pat
terson palace, with a doleful history. not
brick in its massive walls that has not
peen mute witness to some deed of cruelty
ana Wickedness, so beautiful and debonair
s, as it was in the fift3es.
At the beginning of the century a
Scotchman named James Patterson was
trading with the French settlement of
| view Orleanss supplying them with British
goods and slaves, and closely connected
with the La Elites in their smueeline o,
ventures, and was supposed to have made
much money. He was tall, thin man of
immense strength, believed to have but
one thousht IN life, the accumulation of
wealth, and to do this would stop at MOTH
| When Louisiana ipfa
sion of the Americans, in 1903 Patterson
saw that new prospects for trade would
open through the enterprise of the hard
headed northerners. So he landed one
day on Grand Isle with a number of work
men and a large force of slaves. and soon
built o dock.
He labored day and night. and his asso-
c1ates wondered at the mansion he built.
His trade grew, he had two vessels every
SIX months that brought him slaves from
the African coast, and these he sold to
the planters To them he was an anomaly.
man who neither drank gambled nor
made merry. He was twitted once by a
noted Spanish bully named Gomez as a
Jew, and in the quarrel butchered his man
with a cool ferocity that appalled, the
others; but he was a fair dealer and kept
his word at all costs.
One day. in 1904, an English brig came
into Grande Isle from Jamaica, and to the
surprise of all two ladies and three serv-
ants, all white, laaded, and one a girl
was soon clasped in Patterson's arms II
was his daughter Jean, and the elder vo-
man his sister. The girl was a fragile
beauty, but the pure air of the Gulf soon
brought color to her cheeks Her father
would sit and watch her without spealino
for hours, and it was evident that all the
humanity in the old pirates heart was his
love for his daughter. In time splendid
entertainments were given to the better
class of Planters and several times the
| La Elites brought down a party of fhe
Creole aristocrats from New Orleans. all
of whom were impressed by the pale beau
ty of the girl and the splendor of her es
tablishment
When Jean became IS she had suitors
but these her parent routed with startline
abruptness. He had long since maturlA =
plan for jeans future. Much of his
wealth was safe in Europe. He would soon
sell out everything here and take ship for
Scotland. His gold would make her a ned
igree, she would marry some wholesome
Scotchman of the gentry class, and her
fathers career be forgotten. There were
other reasons. Claiborn, the American
governor of Louisiana, was a man of ac-
ton Smuggling was pretty we'll broken
up, the LaFitte brothers outlawed. had
taken to piracy there was trouble ahead.
and this he would escape
Slaves on the coast were taken from
!
but fierce and intractable in temper: Con-
gos sturdy. and stupid, and the Guinea
negro puny, but docile, and quick TO
learn, and these made good house serv-
ants. One day the aunt was told by a
native attendant that one of the black
girls was affected with the Ieprosy. In
terror, she at once told her brother. He
well knew the danger, and, calling the
ships surgeon, man familiar with the
disease, made an examination of the
blacks and found three wel-developed
cases, all women. They were at once taxi
en- to the farther end of the island. a
sleeping draught was administered. from
which they never awoke and the bodies
were burned far away in the swamp. Pat
terson had nothing to learn about this ter
rible malady. Many poor wretch he had
| thrown overheard from his slave ship.
who was afflicted, and he has seen a
powerful yankee mate eaten away by this
white specter the Nemesis Of the trade.
Jean and her aunt went on a visit up
the river the house was fumigated aud
cleaned They returned, the girl white and
listless and Patterson learned that she
was suffering from a low fever and numb
ness in the limbs. Again the doctor was
| called in an examination made and nm