Barataria, with its three
islands — Grande Terre, Grande Isle and Cheniere Caminada — all
occupied by Lafitte's brigands, was literally a fortress; no ship
could pass into or out of the Mississippi without having to squeeze
past this trio of islands. Out toward the awesome Gulf of Mexico
Lafitte's siege guns aimed — oiled, packed and ready — to literally
sink any interference from the waters.
Jean Lafitte was, by degree, a pirate. Under his thumb were
a fleet offifty sailing vessels and an army of buccaneers based in
Barataria Bay who sailed the southern waters for plunder, bringing
back riches and spoils of every kind to sell for a price. The ships
they raped at sea, mostly Spanish ships, harvested boundless booty
— furniture, clothing, the latest silks, crinolines and finest
embroideries, dinnerware, objects d'arte, wines and cheeses, even
medicines — destined for other places before being detoured. And
slaves. The bay, where the Mississippi spills out to the azure Gulf
of Mexico, was a scene of constant incoming and outgoing schooners,
sloops, corsairs and brigantines homebound with or seaward for the
merchandise they sought. In the silver of dawn and the purple of
twilight, one could see the silhouettes of full masts squared and
triangular against the tropical horizon.
Barataria Bay — or simply Barataria, as Lafitte called his
colony,named after the mythical land sought by Cervantes' Don
Quixote — was a Garden of Eden. The principle island, Grande Terre,
was a combination of sandy beach and palm trees, of lush oaks and
oleander, of lagoons and marshes, of shifting tides and foaming
waves. Its deep-blue waters were loaded with speckled trout,
popano, blackdrum and flounder, shrimp and crab. Brown pelicans
strutted its beaches and flapped their wings in tune to the to the
drumbeat of roaring surf. In some areas shoreside, thick oaks
protected inhabitant from the gales of winds that tended to blow in
before a storm. Dangers of hurricane were prevalent during the
months from June through October, and often certain parts of the
island found itself under several feet of sea after a fierce
tropical downpour.
Inaccessible from the Louisiana coast except by sea craft,
Grande Terre and its outlying islands had always provided a refuge
for criminals; Blackbeard the Pirate hid there from the British
Navy in 1718. It is believed that Lafitte conceived the idea for
establishing his base of operations on Grande Terre around
1808.