“Practically,” replied Mr. Bickford. “Teach was the last pirate of note. There were a few who still lurked in the Caribbean, but the Atlantic coasts and the West Indies were getting too hot for them. Such rascals, as Low, England, Roberts and Avery, transferred their activities to more out-of-the-way spots, to Africa, Madagascar and the Indian Ocean, and the last of the West Indian pirates were dispersed and destroyed by Lieutenant, afterwards Commodore, Porter, who also wiped out the Tripolitan pirates.” “But how about Lafitte and his pirates?” asked Jack. “I thought they lived until the time of the war of 1812 and helped General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans.” “So they did,” replied his father. “But Lafitte and his brother were not really pirates. That is, no real acts of piracy were ever proved against them, although they were denounced as such. In reality the Lafittes were smugglers, but their career was so picturesque and romantic that their story may be quite fittingly included in that of the buccaneers and pirates. “The two brothers, Jean and Pierre Lafitte, were born in France, and came to New Orleans in the spring of 1809. They were brilliant, witty, well educated, attractive men, and spoke several languages fluently. The two started a blacksmith shop, which they operated by slaves, and from the first the brothers appeared to have plenty of money. At that time there was a strip of territory, stretching for a distance of about sixty miles from the mouth of the Mississippi to Bayou Lafourche, which was in almost undisputed possession of a colony of smuggler-pirates known as the ‘Baratarians,’ from the fact that their headquarters were on the Bay of Barataria, a body of water with a narrow opening protected from the Gulf by a low, narrow island about six miles long known as Grande-Terre. “Some of these Baratarians possessed letters of marque from France, as well as from the Republic of New Grenada (now Colombia), authorizing them to prey upon Spanish shipping, but like the pirates of old they had the reputation of lacking discrimination and of attacking any vessel that they could overpower. Whatever the truth of their piratical tendencies may have been, there was no question that they were smugglers on a large scale, and not long after the Lafittes arrived in Louisiana they joined their lot with these Baratarians. “Jean occupied a position as a sort of agent and banker for the smugglers, but he was far too clever and ambitious to remain long in such a subordinate capacity, and soon was the head and brains of the whole organization. To this state he won both by superior intelligence and force of arms, for both Lafittes were adept swordsmen and expert pistol shots, and when a fellow called Grambo, a burly leader among the Baratarians, had the temerity to question Jean Lafitte’s leadership the latter promptly whipped out a pistol and shot him through the heart.