oard," cried Lafitte. "And let every
mother's son strike home!"

With pistols in their hands and daggers held between their teeth, the
wild sea-rovers rollicked across the gunwales like a swarm of rats.
Dancing up the deck of the Britisher they beat back all who opposed
them, driving them below into the steerage. Shots rang out like
spitting cats; dirks gleamed; and cutlasses did awful execution. But
the Captain of the Indiaman was rallying his men about him on the
poop, and, with a wild cheer, these precipitated themselves upon the
victorious privateers.

"Board! Board!" cried Lafitte, at this propitious moment, and, cutlass
in hand, he leaped from his own vessel upon the deck of the East
Indiaman. His crew followed with a yelp of defiant hatred, and beat
the Captain's party back again upon the poop, where they stood
stolidly, cursing at the rough sea-riders from St. Thomas.

But Lafitte was a general not to be outdone by such a show of force.
He ordered a gun to be loaded with grape-shot; had it pointed towards
the place where the crowd was assembled; and cried--

"If you don't give in now, I'll exterminate all of you at one
discharge of my piece."

It was the last blow. Seeing that it was useless to continue the
unequal struggle, the British Captain held up his long cutlass, to
which was bound a white handkerchief, and the great sea battle was
over. Lafitte and his terrible crew had captured a boat of double the
size of his own, and with twice his numbers.

Says an old chronicler of the period: "This exploit, hitherto
unparalleled, resounded through India, and the name of Lafitte became
the terror of English commerce in these latitudes. The British vessels
now traversed the Indian Ocean under strong convoys, in order to beat
off this harpy of South Africa."

"Egad," said Lafitte about this time, "these fellows are too smart for
me. I'll have to look for other pickings. I'm off for France."

So he doubled the Cape of Good Hope, coasted up the Gulf of Guinea,
and, in the Bight of Benin, took two valuable prizes loaded down with
gold dust, ivory, and palm oil. With these he ran to St. Malo, where
the people said:

"Tenez! Here is a brave fellow, but would you care to have his
reputation, Monsieur?" And they shook their heads, shrugged their
shoulders, and looked the other way when they saw him coming.

The privateersman, slaver, and pirate was not going to be long with
them, however, for he soon fitted out