Lafitte also wrote to a member of the
Louisiana Legislature, and his letters were well calculated to produce a
very good effect in his favor.
The Governor immediately called a council, and submitted the papers and
letters received from Lafitte. When these had been read, two points were
considered by the council, the first being that the letters and
proclamations from the British might be forgeries concocted by Lafitte
for the purpose of averting the punishment which was threatened by the
United States; and the second, whether or not it would be consistent
with the dignity of the government to treat with this leader of pirates
and smugglers.
The consultation resulted in a decision not to have anything to do with
Lafitte in the way of negotiations, and to hurry forward the
preparations which had been made for the destruction of the dangerous
and injurious settlement at Barrataria. In consequence of this action of
the council, Commodore Patterson sailed in a very few days down the
Mississippi and attacked the pirate settlement at Barrataria with such
effect that most of her ships were taken, many prisoners and much
valuable merchandise captured, and the whole place utterly destroyed.
Lafitte, with the greater part of his men, had fled to the woods, and so
escaped capture.
Captain Lockyer at the appointed time arrived off the harbor of
Barrataria and blazed away with his signal guns for forty-eight hours,
but receiving no answer, and fearing to send a boat into the harbor,
suspecting treachery on the part of Lafitte, he was obliged to depart in
ignorance of what had happened.
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