Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
dealingintheswamphaddrivenawaycustomers.Youcutadealwithapirate,loadthecargo,
set sail, but don't make it beyond the channel before you're hijacked by another pirate. It's
a question of ethics, the integrity of the marketplace. When a man can't make a deal with
a criminal without being robbed by another criminal, well, that's the end. Jean Lafitte must
have waited for a strongman to step forward, some Arnold Rothstein who, understanding
what was at stake, would impose order. When none emerged, he set off to impose order on
the islands himself.
Lafitte had been a sea captain. He understood how to sail, pursue, take a ship. He was
well known in the criminal dives, was familiar to the important underworld players. Yet this
was still a mad plan, a defining gesture. Charlemagne reaches for the crown. Gotti heads for
Sparks Steak House. It took two days to reach the big islands of Barataria. He traveled by
pirogue, through bayous and swamps, where the crocodile smiles on the sun marsh. It re-
mindsmeofthetriptheboytakesinMauriceSendak's
Where the Wild Things Are
.Hisname
is Max. He misbehaves, is sent to his room without dinner. While wearing his wolf costume,
he lies in bed. His room grows over with weeds. It turns into a jungle as he sleeps. It re-
sembles Bayou Lafourche in Louisiana. He wakes to find a small boat on the shore of an
ocean. He crosses the water—small boy, big sea. He lands on an island populated by wild
things, who are nothing but pirates. When they try to scare Max, he tames them with a cold,
steady eye. He has soon subdued the monsters, secured his rule. That's when the wild rum-
pusbegins,thepiratesdancing,parading,swingingfromtrees,MardiGras,JazzFest,aparty
that goes from can till can't. In the end, depleted by his exploits, Max sails away, leaving the
island just as he found it.
I will now tell you exactly how the adventures of Jean Lafitte mirror those of Max:
As Lafitte dozes in his blacksmith shop on Bourbon Street, the bayous grow over with bad
men, become wild. When he wakes, he finds a boat waiting at an inlet. He sails across the
water. After two days, he reaches Grand Terre Island, where wood huts face the open sea.
He is met on the shore by the wild things. In Sendak's story, the monsters have dagger nails,
tangled manes, huge eyes. In Lafitte's story, they have pointy boots, hoop earrings, peg legs.
There were a few hundred men living on Grand Terre when Lafitte arrived: crooks, runaway
slaves, fugitives, privateers, deserters, traders, trappers, and smugglers who were in a state
of war. Several had served in the armies of Napoleon, fired artillery at Austerlitz, stood be-
side big field guns. The most notorious were Vincenzo Gambi, Dominique You, and Louis
Chighizola, knownasNezCoupé,or“Cut Nose.”InthewayofMax,Lafitte fixedthem with
hiscold,calculatingstare.Hetoldthemhe'dcometobringordertothewildplaces.Nomore
stealing what's been stolen, no more selling what's been sold. From now on, the pirates will
workunderasingleflag.It'saboutthegreatergood.MostofthesemenhadknownLafittefor
years: as a fellow traveler, the fence. Most liked him; others feared him. Those who neither
