Legends and Lore of the Mississippi Golden Gulf Coast Read Free Page B

trees.”
    Baptist continued that we can compare this story to the one of gold found at the mouth of Bayou Graveline. Baptist would give anything to make the same kind of discovery. Dr. Herbert disagreed, stating that the two stories are not alike. Schuyler felt the good doctor knew more of this story then he was telling, and even Baptist had stopped opening oysters and was “looking earnestly at the speaker.”
    Schuyler then said, “Let’s have the story, doctor.” Dr. Herbert indicated that it was a long story, but all the people at the center of the story “are all now dead, and no harm will come from my telling it.” Dr. Herbert said the trees were marked on Christmas Day.
    So the story begins with the storyteller and his witnesses. Dr. Herbert had come to Ocean Springs many years prior, and the village had only one physician. Dr. Delmand was a very successful practitioner with “an enviable reputation and was always sent for in times of serious illness.” Doctor Delmand was getting up in age and seemed to resent Dr. Herbert settling there, though he always treated him courteously.
    Dr. Herbert continued, “One day, however, he sent for me.” The good doctor found Dr. Delmand in poor health and began to treat him. As his health declined, Dr. Delmand became depressed. On the tenth day, he asked his family to leave him alone with Dr. Herbert. He confided in the doctor that he had no money to repay him. Dr. Herbert told Dr. Delmand he would not live long, only a few hours. Dr. Delmand said that he had something to tell him but “not till I was bound to secrecy so long as he lived.”

    Washington Avenue, Ocean Springs, 1901. Courtesy of Alan Santa Cruz Collection .
    Dr. Delmand was born an aristocrat in Versailles, France, and received his doctor of medicine degree at the University of Paris. Being an adventurer and fond of water, he decided to travel on a merchant vessel headed for Mexico. While the voyage across the Atlantic was uneventful, the Straits of Florida proved to be different.
    His vessel was attacked and captured by pirates. The pirates began to have the crew walk the plank as the pirate captain watched nearby. As the Spanish captain of the captured vessel approached the plank, he managed to work his hands free. He then drew his hidden dagger and stabbed the pirate captain. The pirate crew shot the Spanish caption and hacked him to pieces.
    Pierre, the brother of the pirate captain, realized that with no doctor in their crew, his brother’s life was endangered. He told the prisoners whoever could save his brother’s life would not have to walk the plank. Dr. Delmand stepped forward and offered his services. His skill as a doctor would save his life and the life of Jean Lafitte, the pirate lord.
    Dr. Delmand’s life was spared, and at Grand Terre Island in Louisiana, Jean Lafitte tried to recruit him as pirate surgeon. He declined and journeyed on to New Orleans to begin his career as a doctor. He was unsuccessful at building a practice and was soon out of money. Fate once more intervened with a chance encounter with Lafitte. Once again, Lafitte made the good doctor an offer to be pirate surgeon, and this time he accepted. He changed his name to hide his real identity and entered Lafitte’s service aboard the L’Hiroudelle . He became close friends with Lafitte; Lafitte’s older brother, Pierre; and Lafitte’s first lieutenant, Grampo. The article stated that in December 1813, Lafitte was returning from a successful trip in the lower Florida Keys, near an island they called Sand Island (Alabama), and here they attacked two Spanish merchants. Sinking the first ship, Lafitte turned to the second but soon realized that it was a Spanish man-of-war. Lafitte then gave orders to “crowd on all possible canvas.” Realizing he could not make Barataria Bay, he headed toward Deer Island and the Biloxi Bay.
    As the Spanish vessel edged