The mere destruction of any of the beach towns would be of no avail, if the black rascals were allowed to rebuild. With their rice and cassava or yam plantations a few miles back, to which they removed the women, children, and other valuables, they would laugh at the white man’s pains. The only lasting check on their villainy would be permanent exclusion from the beach. There was enough of another side to the story to remove indiscriminate vengeance far from the Commodore’s purposes. Our government heard many complaints against the blacks, while their voice was unheard. The native towns and fishing boats were frequently fired into, their towns cannonaded and burnt, and the blacks cruelly maltreated, or sold to warlike tribes, in pure wantonness by white foreigners. As all white men were the same to the negroes, they were apt to take the first opportunity for vengeance that offered itself. In this way, innocent men suffered. An imposing force, more than sufficient for mere punishment, was determined upon. The Commodore had to move with caution, and both justice and victory must be sure, as a failure to awe would make matters worse. His first care was to obtain hostages from the Berribees. In doing this he was able to prove their guilt. He sent Lieutenant Stellwagen in the brig _Porpoise_, disguised as a merchantman, to their coast. Only five or six men, and these in red shirts, showed themselves on deck. The Berribee boats at once rushed out in a shoal to capture the harmless looking vessel. As only a sample of the thieving humanity was needed, the Lieutenant, satisfied with a good joke, refrained from opening his guns on the canoes. After witnessing the seizure of those first climbing over the ship’s sides, and the sudden resurrection from the hatches of his armed crew, the other blacks scattered for the shore. The squadron, consisting of the _Saratoga_, _Macedonian_, _Decatur_ and _Porpoise_ sailing from Mesurado on the 22d of November, cast anchor on the 29th at Sinoe. This settlement, nominally under the care of the Mississippi Colonization Society had been greatly neglected. The negroes from the United States were there, but were little looked after. “Colonization,” in their case meant simply good riddance.