"Though proscribed in my adopted country, I will never miss an opportunity of serving her or of proving that she has never ceased to be dear to me. . . . I may have evaded the payment of duties to the custom house, but I have never ceased to be a good citizen, and all the offences I have committed have been forced upon me by certain vices of the law. . . . Our enemies have endeavoured to work upon me by a motive which few men would have resisted. . . . A brother in irons, a brother who is very dear to me and whose deliverer I might become; and I declined the proposal, well persuaded of his innocence. . . ."
He did his brother and himself injustice. Pierre Lafitte, as Jean knew, had long since given leg-bail, the other having been refused him, and was even then enjoying his wonted security and comfort in New Orleans.
A few days later Lafitte sent, in a second letter to his friend, an anonymous communication from Havana, giving important information about the intended operations of the British. He also enclosed a letter to Governor Claiborne: "In the firm persuasion," he wrote, "that the choice made of you to fill the office of first magistrate of this city was dictated by the esteem of your fellow citizens, and was conferred on merit, I offer to you to restore to this State several citizens who perhaps in your eyes have lost their sacred title. I offer you them, however, such as you would wish to find them, ready to exert their utmost efforts in defence of their country. . . . The only reward I ask . . . is that a stop be put to the proscription against me and my adherents, by an act of oblivion for all that has been done hitherto. . . . I am the stray sheep wishing to return to the sheep-fold. If you were thoroughly acquainted with the nature of my offences, I should appear to you much less guilty and still worthy to discharge the
