vancing haughtily, repeated with emphasis, "Lafitte, the pirate."
At this propitious moment, the Lafittes left New Orleans forever, and nothing so well as this leaving of it proves their verbal assurances of love for the city, and their desire to stand well in the estimation of the community. They formed a settlement at Galvezton, and, under letters of marque from some South American state, they preyed, for a brief space, right royally upon the commerce of Spain. Summoned by the United States to produce the national authority by which he occupied the harbour of Galvezton, Lafitte answered that he had found the port abandoned, and had taken possession of it with the idea of preserving and maintaining it at his own cost. His words are not unworthy quotation:—
"In so doing I was satisfying the two passions which imperiously predominate in me; that of offering an asylum to the armed vessels of the party of independence, and of placing myself in position (considering its proximity to the U. S.) to fly to their assistance should circumstances demand it. . . . I know, Sir, that I have been calumniated in the vilest manner by persons invested with certain authority, but, fortified by a conscience which is irreproachable in every respect, my internal tranquility has not been affected, and, in spite of my enemies, I shall obtain the justice due me."
Shortly afterwards, a United States cruiser having been attacked in the Gulf and robbed of a large sum of money, the Galvezton settlement was broken up. Beyond a stray indication that they were going to attach themselves to the government of Buenos Ayres, nothing further is definitely known of the Lafittes. But tradition still cherishes them, and there has been no
