While the Danes rapidly made a name for themselves as middlemen in the south India trade, the colony's economy languished. Matters worsened when Barent Pessart became governor in 1636. Within a few years, Pessart had destroyed the colony's accounts, and was held hostage by his creditors. In 1643, Pessart's replacement arrived and seized a merchant ship, securing Pessart's release. Pessart immediately repaid this by shutting the fortress gates and refusing to hand over control of Tranquebar until the new governor started assembling siege machinery. Willem Leyel, the new governor, went from crisis to crisis, and eventually became involved in a naval war with the Sultan of Golconda. In 1648, his military aides mutinied against him, and Tranquebar under the dictatorship of Poul Korsør became a base for privateering against most of the Bengal coast, which provoked a declaration of war against all European powers by the Mogul Empire. The colony went into rapid decline, and by 1660, the only European left was the virtually illiterate Governor Eskild Kongsbakke. His successful prosecution of the naval war against half of India by himself says more about Indian naval expertise at the time than about Kongsbakke's martial prowess. A Danish expedition finally arrived in 1669, and the colony prospered for several decades. However, Denmark's participation in the Great Northern War crippled its economy, as well as the Danish East India Company. With its finances tottering, the Company was dissolved in April of 1729, and Tranquebar returned to the rule of Tanjore.