June '06 - Jean Lafitte/Laffite

Jean Lafitte or Laffite – the years of his birth and death are dubious, but approximately the following: 1780 – 1826 – was a pirate in the Gulf of Mexico, obviously at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Lafitte was a colourful, bright character, rumoured to have been born in France. Though he’s quite famous in history and folklore, both the pirate's origins and demise are unknown, but some myths still remain, as always. Myths prove to live much longer than their inspirers.

Not much known about his parents, though one can find statements that his father was French, and his mother – Spanish.

Lafitte established his own "kingdom" of Barataria in the swamps and bayous near New Orleans after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. He claimed to command more than a thousand men and provided them as troops for the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812, assisting Andrew Jackson in repulsing the British attack.

After being run out of New Orleans around 1817, Lafitte relocated to the island of Galveston, Texas establishing another "kingdom" he named "Campeche". In Galveston, Lafitte either purchased or set his claim to a lavishly furnished mansion used by French pirate Louis-Michel Aury, which he named "Maison Rouge". The building's upper level was converted into a fortress where cannon commanding Galveston harbor were placed. Around 1820 Lafitte – they say – married Madeline Regaud, possibly the widow or daughter of a French colonist who had died during an ill-fated expedition to Galveston. In 1821 the schooner Enterprise was sent to Galveston to remove Lafitte's presence from the Gulf after one of the pirate's captains attacked an American merchant ship. Lafitte agreed to leave the island without a fight and in 1821 or 1822 departed on his flagship, the Pride, burning his fortress and settlements and reportedly taking immense amounts of treasure with him. All that remains of Maison Rouge is the foundation, located near the Galveston wharf.

After his departure from Galveston, Lafitte was never heard from again. Rumors have long circulated that Lafitte died in a hurricane in the Gulf or in the Yucatan around 1826. A controversial manuscript, known as the Journal of Jean Laffite, relates how, after his announced death in the 1820s, he lived in several states in the United States, and raised a family until his death in St. Louis in the 1840s. Reportedly at his request, the publication of the journal was delayed for 107 years and surfaced in the 1950s in the hands of a man claiming to be the pirate's descendant.

So, evidently, most of the story can’t be fully relied on, because these facts are intertwined with myths and legends, but, anyways, one can follow the basic pattern of this pirate’s life.