The raids are on the record. The first of the Iroquois campaigns of 1663 was that of 800 Senecas, Cayugas, and Onondagas against the Susquehannock's. The Iroquois besieged the home fort of the Susquehannock's toward the end of May. All but 80 of the Susquehannock's fighting men were at home awaiting the attack. Since their total after the battle was 700, and they were joined in their fort by 100 Lenape, we may infer that the attackers and defenders were fairly even in number. As sieges go, this one was of remarkably short duration. It lasted less than a week before the beaten Iroquois headed home."

Three months later Jesuit Father Lalemant was reporting "sad havoc" from smallpox in nearly deserted Iroquois villages with only halftilled fields. Never again was an expedition as mighty as that of 1663 launched against the Susquehannock's. Not only did the Iroquois lose against their southern enemies, but they were also defeated in their second major expedition of 1663, in the east. In the fall of the year, a party of Mohawks, Onondagas, and Oneidas attacked the Sokoki Indians of Maine. After an initial repulse the Mohawks wanted to call quits, but the others overruled them and the party returned to be calamtously beaten. Far from being the savage rulers of a wilderness empire, the Iroquois now came "within two fingerbreadths of total destruction" from the accumulated effects of famine, disease, and war."

Yet the fighting continued. Indians of New England attacked both the Mohawks and the Dutch. If English instigation was not behind the raids as the Dutch believed, English armament certainly was required to launch them.⁵¹   In the south the Iroquois maintained some momentum. The Oneidas conducted a new raid into the Chesapeake Bay region, and their depredations enraged the always choleric aristocrats of Maryland. The Susquehannock's were battleweary. "Wee know," wrote Jacob, My Friend, that the Susquehannock's "would willingly Imbrace a peace if Obteyned, but are unwilling (through height of Spirit) to sue for itt." Jacob besought Governor Charles Calvert to authorize the negotiation of a general peace "which by every one, wee thinke, is much required and most earnestly desired." Calvert's answer was a redundant declaration of war specifically against the Oneidas who, as Iroquois ("Cynegoes") were already among Maryland's formally declared enemies."