After that the pirates were let alone for two years. Now-a-days they would not have been let alone for two weeks, but things went more slowly then. No doubt the merchants who sent cargoes to sea complained of the dreadful doings of the pirates, but the government did not trouble itself much, and the sea-robbers had their own way until 1821. By that time it was felt that something must be done, and a small fleet of pirate hunters was sent to the West Indies. It included the famous sloop-of-war _Hornet_, the one which had fought the _Peacock_, and the brig _Enterprise_, which Decatur had been captain of in the Moorish war. The pirates were brave enough when they had only merchant ships to deal with, but they acted like cowards when they found warships on their track. They fled in all directions, and many of their ships and barges were taken. After that they kept quiet for a time, but soon they were at their old work again. In 1823 Captain David Porter, he who had fought so well in the _Essex_, was sent against them. The brave young Farragut was with him. He brought a number of barges and small vessels, so that he could follow the sea-robbers into their hiding places. One of these places was found at Cape Cruz, on Porto Rico. Here the pirate captain and his men fought like tigers, and the captain's wife stood by his side and fought as fiercely as he did. After the fight was over the sailors found a number of caves used by the pirates. In some of them were great bales of goods, and in others heaps of human bones. All this told a dreadful story of robbery and murder. Another fight took place at a haunt of pirates on the coast of Cuba, where Lieutenant Allen, a navy officer, had been killed the year before in an attack on the sea-robbers. Here there were over seventy pirates and only thirty-one Americans. But the sailors cried "Remember Allen!" and dashed so fiercely at the pirate vessels, that the cowardly crews jumped overboard and tried to swim ashore. But the hot-blooded sailors rowed in among them and cut fiercely with their cutlasses, so that hardly any of them escaped. Their leader, who was named Diabolito, or "Little Devil," was one of the killed. In this way the pirate hordes were broken up, after they had robbed and murdered among the beautiful West India islands for many years. After that defeat they gave no more trouble. Among the pirates was Jean Lafitte, one of the Lafitte brothers, of whose doings you have read above. After the battle of New Orleans he went to Texas, and in time became a pirate captain again. As late as 1822 his name was the terror of the Gulf. Then he disappeared and no one knew what had become of him. He may have died in battle or have gone down in storm.