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1817.1
ERA OF FILIBUSTERS.
47
which they learned was in a defenseless condition. Here
strife again arose among the three leaders and Aury
abandoned the enterprise, going with his men to Florida.
Perry soon saw that it would be sheer madness to follow
Mina, who, with his little band, was still resolved to free
Mexico; Perry too turned his course northward.* Thus
the first settlement on Galveston Island was quite de-
stroyed, leaving no permanent results.
Lafitte the Pirate.-Jean Lafitte, a Frenchman by
birth, was for several years a blacksmith in New Orleans.
Of his early life many strange stories are told, but nothing
is positively known until he is found agent for the smug-
gling vessels that, since the Embargo Act passed by the
United States (1807), were doing a fine business on the
Louisiana coast.t He gathered about him a set of daring
seamen, and established himself on the island of Grand
Terre (gran ter), about sixty miles from the Mississippi
Delta. Here he made a fortune by smuggling goods into
the United States. Not being able to disperse the smug-
glers the Governor of Louisiana offered $500 for Lafitte's
* Perry with only 52 men, wonderful as it may seem, managed to retrace his
steps in safety as far as Goliad, which fort he bravely attacked, ignorant of the
fact that a force of the enemy was in pursuit of him. With superior numbers in
both front and rear it is no wonder that every man in the band was killed; rather
than surrender or be slain by the foe, Perry blew out his own brains. Mina also
met a tragic death; after many attempts to assist the cause of Mexican liberty he
was captured by the Royalists and shot (November, 1817).
t Yoakum says Lafitte fell in love with a beautiful woman, became jealous of
all about her, challenged and killed his rival, and hence was forced to take refuge
in the South. Bancroft relates that a naval officer who visited Lafitte heard
from the pirate's own lips this story of his life: "Eighteen years before he had
been a merchant at Santo Domingo, and having become rich, he wound up
his affairs, sold his property, bought a ship, and freighted her with a valuable
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Pennybacker, Anna J. Hardwicke. A new history of Texas for schools : also for general reading and for teachers preparing themselves for examination, book, 1895; Palestine, Tex.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2388/m1/61/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.