Jean The Gentleman Pirate Lafitte

Like all pirates Jean Lafitte is no different. He wants to be close to the water as much as possible. He would very much like to visit his old stomping grounds and the Pirate strong holds. All of this while on his way to Port Royal Jamaica to make it into the cache "Things That Make You Go Boom" GCXXDP. He will receive the next leg og his journey once there. He requires travel by boat as much as possible.

Jean Lafitte (1776 - 1854?), was a famous pirate in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 19th century.

As a privateer and and pirate, Jean Lafitte lived much of his life outside the law, and a number of details about his life are obscure.

He is said to have been a friend of both Andrew Jackson and Napoleon Bonaparte. Lafitte allegedly tried to help Napoleon escape exile, but fearing capture he fled back to Louisiana when Napoleon didn't arrive at Lafitte's boat in Bordeaux at the exact hour planned. Stories also circulated that Lafitte buried Napoleon's treasure somewhere and that it has not been found even to this day.

Along with his 'crew of a thousand men', Lafitte sometimes receives credit for helping defend Louisiana from the British in the War of 1812, with his nautical raids along the Gulf of Mexico.

Jean and his older brother Pierre Lafitte established their own "Kingdom of Barataria" in the swamps and bayous near New Orleans after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Lafitte reportedly conducted his operations in the historic New Orleans French Quarter.

Jean spent the majority of his time in Barataria managing the daily hands-on business of outfitting privateers and arranging the smuggling of stolen goods.

After being run out of New Orleans around 1817, Lafitte relocated to the island of Galveston, Texas establishing another "kingdom" he named "Campeche". In Galveston, Lafitte either purchased or set his claim to a lavishly furnished mansion used by French pirate Louis-Michel Aury, which he named "Maison Rouge". The building's upper level was converted into a fortress where a cannon commanding Galveston harbor was placed. In 1821, the schooner USS Enterprise was sent to Galveston to remove Lafitte from the Gulf after one of the pirate's captains attacked an American merchant ship. Lafitte agreed to leave the island without a fight, and in 1821 or 1822 departed on his flagship, the Pride, burning his fortress and settlements and reportedly taking immense amounts of treasure with him. All that remains of Maison Rouge is the foundation, located at 1417 Avenue A near the Galveston wharf.

In the early 19th Century, a price of $5,000 was placed on Jean Lafitte's head by the Louisiana Governor, William C. C. Claiborne. In response, Jean Lafitte put the same bounty on the Governor.

He established a base on Mugeres Island off the coast of Yucatan, but it was just a small collection of squalid huts.

n 1826, Lafitte entered the little Indian village of Teljas, on the mainland, and died of fever after a few days' illness in a native hut. He was 47.