Campeche / Maison Rouge Lafitte Cache — Galveston Island

From 1817 to 1821 Lafitte governed a pirate colony of roughly 1,000 people called Campeche on Galveston Island, centered on his fortified Maison Rouge compound. Smuggling, piracy, and illegal slave trading made the settlement enormously profitable. When Commodore Daniel Patterson's squadron demanded he leave Texas waters, Lafitte reportedly set fire to Campeche and sailed away. Gulf Coast folklore holds that he hid chests of gold and silver on the island's beaches, in bayou mouths, and beneath the ruins of his own compound rather than carry everything aboard. Texas Highways and Galveston historians note that more than two centuries of metal-detecting and digging have produced occasional old coins but no authenticated Lafitte hoard. Coordinates approximate the east-end Galveston Island area where Campeche stood, later overlain by the Strand District and port development. Related entry: "Jean Lafitte Treasure — Galveston Bay" (broader bay-wide legend).