cholls, made overtures to Jean Lafitte, offering him the
rank of captain in the British army, a grant of lands, and a sum of
$30,000 if he would join forces with the British squadron then engaged
in an attack on the coast of Louisiana. Lafitte begged for time to
consider Colonel Nicholls's proposal, but immediately put himself in
communication with Claiborne, offering, on condition of immunity for
past offences, to place his resources at the disposal of the United
States. Claiborne's reply to this patriotic offer seems to have been to
despatch a strong naval force, under Commander Daniel Patterson, with
orders to exterminate the pirates, and seize their fort on Grande Terre;
and, on this occasion, though the brothers escaped, the authorities were
successful. A proclamation was issued by General Andrew Jackson, in
which the pirates were denounced as "hellish banditti," and, to all
appearances, their career was at an end. But circumstances were in their
favour, and a few weeks later Jackson not only went back on his own
mandate, but accepted the alliance and services of the brothers Lafitte
and their captains at the siege of New Orleans, January 8, 1815.
Finally, when peace with Great Britain was concluded, President Madison
publicly acknowledged the "unequivocal traits of courage and fidelity"
which had been displayed by the brothers Lafitte, and the once
proscribed band of outlaws. Thenceforth Pierre Lafitte disappears from
history; but Jean is believed to have settled first at Galveston, in
Texas, and afterwards, in 1820, on the coast of Yucatan, whence "he
continued his depredations on Spanish commerce." He died game, a pirate
to the last, in 1826. See, for what purports to be documentary evidence
of the correspondence between Colonel E. Nicholls and Jean Lafitte,
_Historical Memoirs of the War in West Florida and Louisiana_, by Major
A. La Carriere Latour, 1816, Appendix III. pp. vii.-xv. See, too,
_Fernando de Lemos_ (an historical novel), by Charles Gayarre, 1872, pp.
347-361.]

In [the Rev. Mark] Noble's continuation of "Granger's _Biographical
History_" [_of England_, 1806, iii. 68], there is a singular passage in
his account of Archbishop Blackbourne [1658-1743]; and as in some
measure connected with the profession of the hero of the foregoing poem,
I cannot resist the temptation of extracting it.--"There is something
mysterious in the history and character of Dr. Blackbourne. The former
is but imperfectly known