attle. The two sloops had surrendered before, the
gunboats were driven away by the _Ticonderoga_, and the hard fight was
done. Once more the Americans were victors. Perry had won one lake.
MacDonough had won another.

And that was not the whole of it. For as soon as the American soldiers
saw the British flag down and the Stars and Stripes still afloat, they
set up a shout that rang back from the Vermont hills.

Sir George Prevost, though he had an army of veterans twice as strong as
the American army of militia, broke camp and sneaked away under cover of
a storm.

CHAPTER XIX

FOUR NAVAL HEROES IN ONE CHAPTER

FIGHTS WITH THE PIRATES OF THE GULF AND THE CORSAIRS OF THE
MEDITERRANEAN

WE have so far been reading the story of legal warfare; now let us turn
to that of the wild warfare of the pirate ships. Pirates swarmed during
and after the War of 1812, and the United States had its hands full in
dealing with them. They haunted the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean
Sea, and they went back to their old bad work in the Mediterranean. They
kept our naval leaders busy enough for a number of years.

The first we shall speak of are the Lafittes, the famous sea-rovers of
the Gulf of Mexico. Those men had their hiding places in the lowlands of
Louisiana, where there are reedy streams and grassy islands by the
hundreds, winding in and out in a regular network. From these lurking
places the pirate ships would dash out to capture vessels and then hurry
back to their haunts.

The Lafittes (Jean and Pierre) had a whole fleet of pirate ships, and
were so daring that they walked the streets of New Orleans as if that
city belonged to them, and boldly sold their stolen goods in its marts,
and nobody meddled with them.

But the time came when they were attacked in their haunts and the whole
gang was broken up. This was near the end of the war, when the
government had some ships to spare. After that they helped General
Jackson in the celebrated battle of New Orleans, and fought so well that
they were forgiven and were thanked for their services.

When the War of 1812 was over many of the privateers became pirates. A
privateer, you know, is something like a pirate. He robs one nation,
while a pirate robs all. So hundreds of those men became sea-robbers.

After 1814 the seas of the West Indies were full of pirates. There was
no end of hiding places among the thousand islands of these seas, where
the pirates could bring th