LAST YEARS 257 



reached its culmination. Towards the close 

 of the War of 1812, Commodore Patterson 

 broke up the famous pirate gang of Jean 

 Lafitte 1 and drove them from their ren- 

 dezvous at Barataria, near the mouth of the 

 Mississippi. Lafitte and his men, some 

 eight hundred in number, afterwards joined 

 General Jackson at New Orleans, and 

 fought so bravely against the English that 

 President Madison granted them a pardon 

 Feb. 6, 1815. It is fair to presume, how- 

 ever, that no real change occurred in their 

 moral character, and that most of the men 

 relapsed into piracy. Lafitte, after three 

 years, turned pirate again, and made Gal- 

 veston Island his headquarters. Several of 

 his vessels were taken by the U. S. cutter 

 "Alabama," and their crews tried and 



1 Jean Lafitte was a man of considerable ability. In 

 his early piratical life he claimed to fight only against 

 the Spaniards; but if so, he made many mistakes as to 

 nationality. In 1813 Governor Claiburne of Louisiana 

 offered $5000 for his head. He replied by an offer of 

 $50,000 for the Governor's. He died in Sisal, .Yucatan, 

 in 1826. 



