Three weeks after the Iroquois delegation had left Shackamaxon, Andros increased his pressure on the Susquehannock's still remaining at the Delaware. He sent word that they should locate themselves anywhere they pleased within his government except among the Lenape, "it being dangerous to both." ¹⁰⁰   Perhaps he meant that the Iroquois were willing to start a war with the Lenape for the sake of the 26 remaining Susquehannock families, but the notion lacks credibility. The Iroquois had already won by far the majority of the Susquehannock's, and to argue that Andros was too fearful of them to attempt to protect the remaining Susquehannock's against them would be absurd. If Andros could not have protected the Susquehannock's while they were among the Lenape, he surely could not have protected them against the Iroquois anywhere else. Andros' insistence that the precise location at Delaware Bay constituted the hazard reveals that he apprehended the danger's source to be in Maryland. In spite of his pressure, and certainly without fear of the Iroquois, the Susquehannock's and the Lenape continued their previous relationship of guests and hosts.

As remarked earlier, by the time that Maryland's Henry Coursey started on his peacemaking mission to the Iroquois, full preparation had been made by his several antagonists to settle matters to their own liking. Indeed news of his mission came to New Castle as a surprise of dubious import. An alarm was raised and a company of militia was summoned to man the fort, "there to bee uppon their Garde and Receive such further order as shall be found necessary."¹⁰¹

Coursey got little information and less help at New Castle. Captain Collier, he found, had been an "cviii Instrument" to Maryland, and Collier showed no signs of change. After Coursey had spent several frustrating days at New Castle, Jacob Young arrived. Through him, Coursey finally was able to talk to some of the Indians of the vicinity. Four Susquehannock's, in tow of Renowickam, came to declare their desire for peace with Maryland. They were so little in fear of the Iroquoic that they promised Coursey to "endeavour to speak" with any Iroquois party that might come to the region, thus "to prevent any mischeife that may be done" either by the Iroquois or by any Susquehannock's accompanying them. It was hardly the sort of interview that expectant victims would normally initiate. Both the Susquehannock's and the Lenape chief were pleased with Coursey's mission; they promised to send representatives of their own to New York to join the grand treaty in the making there.¹⁰²

The treaty got under way rather slowly. Had the Susquehannocks remained on the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers, Coursey could have approached them directly with his own interpreter, Jacob Young. Now, however, he found that Edmund Andros was to be his intermediary, willynilly. Coursey spent much of June in New York, haggling with Andros over the terms with which he would be permitted to approach Andros' wards.¹⁰³

Though illinformed about the Susquehannock's, Maryland's Council had expected to have to approach the Iroquois through Andros, so oursey's formal Instructions had been prepared in reproachless form. Coursey was to be sure to include Virginia and all the allied Indians in a "universal" peace. He was to make indemnity to the Iroquois for "injuries done by our Neighbours to them Unknowne to us." He was to explain to the Iroquois that Maryland's hostilities had all been provoked by deceptions practiced by the wicked Susquehannock's: "we afterwards found out that those very murders which the Susquehannock's fathered upon the Cinnigos were committed by the Susquehannock's themselves, and that was the real cause of the war." Coursey was also to demonstrate Maryland's purity of heart: all this effort was being made "for to settle our owne peace, nothing [being] more to the decreasing of his Majesty's Customs than such distractions as take the people from Planting." As a final sign of Lord Baltimore's good will, Coursey was "to make a present of One hundred pounds Sterling to the Governor of New York as a token of his Lordshipps thankfulness for his care and kindness shewn to this Province.^"104 After such an explosion of magnanimity, only a confirmed cynic could still resist the Lord Baltimore's benevolent designs, but Andros behaved like the boor who accepts an election bribe only to vote for the other party.

He had reasons. Even while he and Coursey wrestled over treaty terms, the Maryland Council decided to "grant" 8,000 acres of land "within this Province [of Maryland] on the Seaboard side" in order to combat settlers who "doe pretend to be under the Government of New York." Discreetly the Council decided to postpone "a right understanding" with New York about the Whorekills jurisdiction until after Henry Coursey had returned with his treaty safely signed.¹⁰⁵ However, the Marylanders underestimated Andros' capacity to keep himself informed of such matters. Maryland surveyors had been at work in the Whorekills even before the Maryland Council acted, and a Whorekills resident had written to inform Andros about them. While Coursey offered Andros soft words and hard money, Andros maintained diplomatic urbanity, but he had in his pocket the clue to Maryland's real intentions.¹⁰⁶

On the face of it Coursey's disingenuous approach could hardly disguise the damage that Coursey proposed to inflict on the Duke of York's interests. The speech prepared by Coursey as the desired terms of Maryland's peace went far beyond his open Instructions. He assumed a haughty, browbeating stance. Maryland had "fallen upon" the Susquehannock's, he boasted, "and have now so near destroyed them that they are forced to seek shelter under you [the Iroquois] who were before their Enemies." As the price of peace Coursey wanted to demand that the Iroquois police the Susquehannock refugees in their villages. Any Susquehannock suspected by the Maryland government of criminal activity would have to be delivered up by the Iroquois for adjudication and punishment within Maryland and under Maryland law. The effect of such terms would be to make the Iroquois formally responsible to Maryland instead of New York.¹⁰⁷   The speech was never spoken. What Andros finally approved for actual delivery to the Iroquois was a bland homily that kept well within the peace and good will formula of Coursey's formal Instructions. Not only was the brag about destroying the Susquehannock's deleted; all reference whatever to those Indians was suppressed. The treaty became, in form, a negotiation solely between Maryland and the Iroquois. The sanctions that Coursey had wanted to impose turned into a mild request for reciprocity of good faith:

Wee are willing that all what is Past, be buryed and forgott you takeing care (as we shall on our Parts) that your Indians, nor none liveing among you or comeing through your Countrey, doe for the future Injure any of our Persons (Piscataway or other our Indians liveing with us) or goods, and if any ill Person should doe any harm, that there be Present full Satisfaction given, for all Injuries or dammages.¹⁰⁸

Coursey tried to recover the lost ground by getting to the Iroquois directly. He arranged through Jacob Youngthus avoiding Albany's official interpreters and censorsto hold a private meeting in his own room. There he proposed to the sachems that a new conference should be held the following year, at Onondaga, away from New York's supervision. Always willing to explore the possibilities of interprovincial competition, the Iroquois agreed; but, for some unknown reason, Maryland never fulfilled the arrangement with an actual embassy.¹⁰⁹