Piracy still continued rife. There was no American squadron then on the coast. The schooner Mesurado was captured off Cape Mount, and all hands put to death. But while the native commerce was thus exposed and almost destroyed, the colony was extending its limits. The petty kings offered to come under its jurisdiction, on condition that settlers should be placed upon their lands, and schools established for the benefit of the native children. The arrivals of emigrants became more frequent: six hundred being added to the colony during one year. These suffered comparatively little in the acclimating process. In the year 1832, the colonists were again called to take the field against the Deys and a combination of other tribes. Several slaves had escaped, and sought protection in the colony; upon which the settlements at Caldwell and Mills were threatened with destruction. A brisk action, of half an hour, resulted in favor of the Liberians. This victory made an impression on the minds of the natives favorable to the future peace of the settlers. The chiefs who had been conquered appeared in Monrovia, and signed a treaty of peace, guaranteeing that traders from the interior should be allowed a free passage through their territories. The agent received a significant message from his old friend, King Boatswain, stating, that had he known of the hostility of the chiefs, it would have been unnecessary for the colonists to have marched against them. Captain Voorhees, of the U. S. sloop-of-war _John Adams_, on his homeward-bound passage from the Mediterranean, in a letter to the Secretary of the Navy, reported favorably of the condition in which he found the colony. In January, 1834, the Rev. J. B. Pinney, as colonial agent, and Dr. G. P. Todsen, as physician, with nine missionaries, arrived at Monrovia, and were formally received by the civil and military officers, and uniform companies. Mr. Pinney, in entering upon the duties of his office, found many abuses, which he promptly corrected. He resurveyed the lands; repaired the public buildings; satisfied the public creditors; and extinguished the jealousy between two tribes of recaptured Africans, by allowing each to elect its own officers. After a short and efficient administration, he was compelled, from ill health, to retire, when the agency devolved on Dr. Skinner.