applying for a passage he should find a
rascal who had defrauded one of his friends out of a considerable sum of
money, "New Orleans," he added, "being the natural rendezvous of rogues
and scoundrels." Among persons answering the latter description were the
pirates known as "Baratarians," because they lived on Barataria Bay, just
west of the mouths of the Mississippi River. They pretended to prey upon
Spanish commerce only, but they made very little distinction and sold
their plunder openly in the markets of New Orleans. The slave-trade was,
however, their chief resource. They captured Spanish and other slaves on
the high seas, and sold them to planters who were glad to buy for from
$150 to $200 each, negroes worth three or four times that amount in the
regular market. Jean Lafitte was the chief of these marauders. A
Frenchman by origin he felt some attachment, it appears, to the country
which tolerated him and his fellow-pirates, and when the commander of the
British Gulf Squadron offered to pay the Baratarians to join him in an
attack on New Orleans, Lafitte at once sent the dispatches received from
the British to Governor Claiborne, of Louisiana. The people of New
Orleans, under the leadership of Edward Livingston, the noted jurist, and
former mayor of New York, organized a Committee of Safety, and prepared
to assist in repelling the enemy. General Jackson, now major-general in
the regular army, and in command of the Department of the South, repulsed
the British from Mobile, and took Pensacola by storm, and thus freed from
apprehension of an attack from Florida, he proceeded to defend New
Orleans.

Fortunately for the American cause Captain Samuel C. Reid, commander of
the privateer General Armstong, being attacked in the neutral harbor of
Fayal by the British commodore, Lloyd, and his squadron, resisted the
onset with such extraordinary courage and energy as to severely cripple
his assailants. Captain Reid was obliged to scuttle his ship to prevent
her from falling into the hands of the British, but the latter lost one
hundred and twenty killed and one hundred and thirty wounded in the
unequal battle, and Lloyd's squadron was not able to join the expedition
at Jamaica until ten days after the date appointed for departure. The
General Armstrong lost only two men killed and seven wounded in this
memorable fight, which gave Jackson ample time to prepare the defence of
New Orleans.

To New Orleans had resorted many ad