We must make a choice of motives in order to interpret these cryptic utterances. However, if we assume that Maryland and New York were playing fair with each other, the subsequent behavior of the Indians becomes inexplicable. If we assume contrariwise, that Andros and the Marylanders were fencing with each other in a ruthless match of power politics, the most enigmatic actions are stripped of their mystery. The following explanation rests on the latter assumption.

Jacob Young, who was in Maryland's pay as an interpreter, had won over Captain Cantwell to the longestablished Delaware Bay game of lucrative dalliance with the Maryland gentry. Young and Cantwell, knowing Andros' desire to keep the Susquehannock's under his own control, precipitated peace negotiations with Maryland to balk Andros' plans. The Maryland Council responded at first in the desire to effect a genuine peace that would safeguard the back country from Susquehannock raids. But after the Piscatawa and Mattawoman Indians had promised to march anywhere to fight the Susquehannock's, the Maryland gentry schemed to launch their allied Indians, followed by troops, into the Delaware valley to fasten themselves onto as much real estate as possible. The excuse would be "hot pursuit" of the enemy into what we nowadays are likely to call a privileged sanctuary. Andros caught on to the scheme and countered it. He dismissed Cantwell for being too ready to connive with the Marylanders. Then Andros issued a veiled threat that Maryland's Indians could be dealt with by New York's Indians. But so long as no genuine peace existed between Marylanders and Susquehannock's the threat of hot pursuit would remain. On that account, Andros demanded that the Marylanders receive the Susquehannock's into their own territory or make a final peace with them. If Maryland refused, Andros would permit the Iroquois to take the Susquehannock's. Andros' primary concern was to get the Susquehannock's away from the threatened Delaware valley. Once they were gone, an incursion from Maryland would be naked aggression and could be dealt with as such, both on the premises and in England. Andros tried to persuade the Susquehannock's to remove to New York with an invitation that was an ultimatum, but apparently his invitation won small acceptance; the Susquehannock's preferred to live with their "old confederates" the Lenape. It seems that when he failed in this direct approach Andros gave the word to the Iroquois to try their own kind of persuasion. Iroquois hostilities against the Susquehannock's had been suppressed by Andros since his accession to office. Now, after Andros' ultimatums to Maryland and to the Susquehannock's had both passed unheeded, the Iroquois came to life again in a series of actions that were fully in accord with Andros' policies.

Their intervention came to Maryland's attention in December, 1676, through "a small encounter" between some Susquehannocks and Iroquois at Jacob Young's house. Maryland's Deputy Governor Notley saw a mixture of danger and opportunity in the revived Iroquois activity. It was time, he concluded, to adjust "all matters" with "all manner of Indians." But Notley did not panic; his was to be a calculated kind of adjustment. He planned to take "all imaginable pains" to be at peace with both the Iroquois and the Susquehannock's, but more especially with the Iroquois. The policy of 1674 was reactivated as though nothing had happened in the meantime. On Maryland's assumptions it made sense. If the Iroquois were neutralized, they could no longer figure in ultimatums from New York, veiled or otherwise. Perhaps they might even be won to full alliance with Maryland; in that case they could be poised, like Maryland's other Indian allies, against the LenapeSusquehannock combination on Delaware Bay. ⁹⁶

Notley's Council deliberated and chose Major Henry Coursey as ambassador, supplying him with a set of carefully detailed instructions. With a large escort and a bag full of papers, Coursey set off in May for New York by way of New Castle. It was the beginning of a long and expensive journey that produced a treaty, an illusion, a triumph, and an organization. The expense and the illusion came to Maryland. The triumph and the organization were shared by Andros and the Indians. The treaty was the means of all.