ong under a spread of
bellying canvas, and was guided by the keen eye of this youthful
mariner. He came from the same little town in France which sheltered
the good mother of Du Guay-Trouin, the great French "blue." His name
was Jean Lafitte.

This sea-rover had been born in 1781, and had taken to the ocean at
the age of thirteen, when most boys are going to boarding-school.
After several voyages in Europe, and to the coast of Africa, he was
appointed mate of a French East Indiaman, bound to Madras in India.
But things did not go any too well with the sturdy ship; a heavy gale
struck her off the Cape of Good Hope; she sprung her mainmast,
and--flopping along like a huge sea-turtle--staggered into the port of
St. Thomas in the island of Mauritius, off the east coast of Africa.

"Here," said young Lafitte to his Captain, "is where I leave you, for
you are a bully, a braggart, and a knave."

And, so saying, he cut for shore in the jolly-boat, but--if the truth
must be known--Lafitte and the Captain were too much alike to get on
together. They both wished to "be boss." Like magnets do not attract,
but repel.

Luck was with the young deserter. Several privateers were being fitted
out at the safe port of St. Thomas and he was appointed Captain of one
of them. Letters of Marque were granted by the Governor of the
Mauritius.

"Ah ha!" cried the youthful adventurer. "Now I can run things to suit
myself. And I'll grow rich."

This he speedily succeeded in doing, for, in the course of his cruise,
he robbed several vessels which came in his path, and, stopping at the
Seychelles (Islands off the eastern coast of Africa), took on a load
of slaves for the port of St. Thomas. Thus he had descended--not only
to piracy--but also to slave catching; the lowest depths to which a
seaman could come down.

When four days out from the curiously named islands, a cry went up
from the watch,

"Sail ho! Off the port bow! A British frigate, by much that's good,
and she's after us with all speed!"

To which bold Lafitte answered, "Then, we must run for it!" But he
hoisted every bit of canvas which he had about and headed for the Bay
of Bengal. "And," said he, "if she does not catch us and we get away,
we'll take an English merchantman and burn her." Then he laughed
satirically.

The British frigate plodded along after the lighter vessel of Lafitte's
until the Equator was reached, and then she disappeared,--disgruntled at
not being able