ing multitudes of islands, which lie hidden
behind a dense growth of rushes and reeds, twelve feet high.

It was through this region, neither water nor land, that the hapless
Evangeline, the heroine of Longfellow's famous poem, was rowed, seeking
her lover in these flooded wilds, and not dreaming that he lay behind
one of those reedy barrens, almost within touch, yet as unseen as if
leagues of land separated them.

One of the bays of this liquid coast, some sixty miles south of New
Orleans, is a large sheet of water, with a narrow island partly shutting
it off from the Gulf. This is known as Grande Terre, and west of it is
another island known as Grande Isle. Between these two long land gates
is a broad, deep channel which serves as entrance to the bay. On the
western side lies a host of smaller islands, the passes between them
made by the bayous which straggle down through the land. Northward the
bay stretches sixteen miles inland, and then breaks up into a medley of
bayous and small lakes, cutting far into the land, and yielding an easy
passage to the level of the Mississippi, opposite New Orleans.

Such is Barataria Bay, once the famous haunt of the buccaneers. It seems
made by nature as a lurking-place for smugglers and pirates, and that is
the purpose to which it was long devoted. The passages inland served
admirably for the disposal of ill-gotten goods. For years the pirates of
Barataria Bay defied the authorities, making the Gulf the scene of their
exploits and finding a secret and ready market for their wares in New
Orleans.

The pirate leaders were two daring Frenchmen, Pierre and Jean Lafitte,
who came from Bordeaux some time after 1800 and settled in New Orleans.
They were educated men, who had seen much of the world and spoke several
languages fluently. Pierre, having served in the French army, became a
skilled fencing-master. Jean set up a blacksmith shop, his slaves doing
the work. Such was the creditable way in which these worthies began
their new-world career.

Their occupation changed in 1808, in which year the slave-trade was
brought to an end by act of Congress. There was also passed an Embargo
Act, which forbade trade with foreign countries. Here was a double
opportunity for men who placed gain above law. The Lafittes at once took
advantage of it, smuggling negroes and British goods, bringing their
illicit wares inland by way of the bayous of the coastal plain and
readily disposing of them as ho