The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-10-25
THE PIRATE REICNED
FoRMER Hx1uax or IArrrrz
 MARKED BY EVACUATION.

1AA1 1ANk1 v 0k&V1vkUf | FoHMER nxTuoE or LArrrTE
 MARkBD BY DEsoLATToN. Fresbooter Who Fcusht v.Iiantlv
 for the American 0ause--His Re
 treat nov Given over to Beasts
 and Heptiles--Traditiens of
 His Adventurous Career
 that Cling about
 Region.
 Atlantic Monthly.
 The student of American history kn.,vrs that among the defenders of New orisans in 1sl4 was Jean Laftte, the pirate. with some hundreds of his men. who came from their settlement on the islands and cheniers about Barataria bay; he knows that when the city had been saved tbeae men were granted . fun pardon and that many returned to civilized life But the fate of the Baratarian settlement-that was left to the students guess. So com pleteiy was the region forKotten that the average New Orleans citizen today has little or no idea of the route to be pursued in reaching 1t. Inquiries at hotel and steamer ofices gave me very little heip when one day in April went to and fro about the crescent city asking a wav to reach the country of the pirates. At last I bethought myself of the French market, whither 90 the shrimp, fish and turtles from Baratarta. There. among dark haired Hungarians and fat-faced French madams. learned the name of a little steamer which plies back and forth in the Barataria trade.
 The boat would leave in two days, said the kindly old gray-haired captain. and would arrive at Grand Pass, between Grande Terre and Grande Isle, on the second day out.
 Amid Weird Surroundings.
 The vessel lay at the head of Harvey,s canal, one of the little channels by which luggers make their way to the swamps and bayous and back again to the river, The engine gave forth a puff-puff. puff- puff-puff, and we started southwestward from the city. The reed covered marsh gave way to dense cypress swamp, cy- press whose limbs were draped with long festoons of gray Spanish moss Turtles scurried from every fallen log. Water snakes swam lazily along the shore. Huge garfish jumped like trout. splashing the water In our front. The huts of moss gatherers, with their adornment of stupid. wondering black faces. passed. Then we issued upon an almost currentless stream Of brackish water-a stream half as wide as the Hudson at Albany This was the Bayou of Little Barataria,
 Now We are approaching the country of the pirates. The bayou branches and branches again. and at one forking place there is a high shell mound and about It's foot a modest extent of land that rises always well above tidewater. Here in the old days was Lafittes chief distributing point. By a dozen routes contraband could be brought from the gulf to one of the cypress shaded passes that led hither And from here to the portages leading in- to New Orleans the way was safe to fol- low and easy to guard. Here was the palace royal of the buccaneer chief. Here It was that Lawyer Grymes, invited to Baratarfa to receive his fee of s20,0OO for the defense of the young Lafitte, was wined and iined by the ''niost polished gentlemen of. the world" It was back through the same bayou by which we came that he went with his gold in A 1 splendid yawl It was at plantations whose charred ruins we have seen that he met hospitabie planters and played sinful games that left him to arrive in | New Orleans penniless and in debt.
 Lafitte Reigned Supreme.
 From here to the Gulf of Mexico extend- l ed the rule of Lafitte. The shell heaps | were his stations. The higher land was | settled by his followers. The bayous were | his routes of travel and places of hiding | When piracy ceased with the battle of | chalmette his people improved the plan 1 Eations that existed and made new ones ,n every bit of land that rose high enough | Tor tilling. The old civilization was con l Linued on new basis. only little more | in touch with Louisiana laws and far less | Tn touch with Louisiana people than in | the days of the freebooter
 Ii is thirty-ffve miles by the most direct | bayou route from this point to Grande 4 rerre on the gulf coast. Yet over the | whole persists the personality of Jean La 1 itte. It Is a strange thing, this immor- allty of strong characters. One who has | visited Mount Vernon feels that Wash ngton still lives. At Monticello one finds | Thomas Jefferson alive in the traditions | hat connect him with every object. So | ives Lafitte on Barataria bayous and on | 8arataria bay.
 At the old distributing point near Lake | Salvador is a prehistoric shell mound and | m this beneath the live oaks lie two brothers, sons of follower of Lafitte, who even as late as the civil war ruled 'ver Barataria. In the ruins of the old lave hospital lives an ancient negro who erved the brothers as a slave He brings hem to fife and lets us see them in one phase of their piratical character
 'Dey both had niggah wives" said he, an yallah chilluns. De younges' he die lrst. We all niggahs hab to so to de uneral. De odder brudder he read de ermon out'n a book. He read a while m de 1T yallah chilluns ob de dead 'rudder all cry an say. oh, daddy, dad y! Den he stop readin' an say, Shut ID, you d-n III niggahsv Den he read ome noah. Bimeby de chilluns cry ag'in n say. Oh, daddy, daddy! Den he stop eadln' agtn an say, Shut up, you d-n Fl niggahs! Cain't you alls femme read lis here sermon fur you alT d-n noise ?e''
 A Native Legend
 From scene like this 1t is not far to ourselves to the day when re- gion and freebooting went hand in hand; Vhen a buccaneer captain would compel r lis crew to attend divine worship on 'unday; when he asked the blessing of eaven upon every voyage; asked that his rizes might be easily captured and heav- ly treasure laden, and, the conquest com lete, read services of thanks=iving
 A little below this point, with It's graves, ve come to the peach orchard" live ak forest where in the days of piracy each trees flourshed In the decade fol- owing the war of 1872 the land fell into he hands of Spaniard, who found upon | jar of Spanish doubloons that made Jim immensely rich.
 Here a passenger comes on board our title vessel. He is a man of more than 0 years. tall and straight and dark as an ndian. He is a pleasant man of Spanish lescent and owns one of the rice farms m this bayou. His father was here be- I&E I,s rCat tiOv, g, A,,TFl ]