But how these Manilamen arrived in Louisiana is a mystery as murky as the bayou itself. Some historians believe they came on Spanish trade vessels in the mid-1700s. Others believe Filipino sailors and servants plying the Manila-Acapulco trade route jumped ship in the New World and sought refuge in the Gulf, whose marshy, flood-prone landscape resembled their homeland. Some British colonists even talked of "Malay pirates" that were part of French pirate Jean Lafitte's band of smugglers who captured Spanish galleons.
