In spite of all restrictions and frustrations, Coursey left Albany with an illusion of ultimate triumph. He had finally made contact with the elusive Iroquois and had provided for meeting them again on better terms. He did get what he thought was a full and final peace embracing Virginia and his Indian allies as well as Maryland. The danger of a LenapeSusquehannock confederacy had been circumvented, it seemed. At Albany, Coursey succeeded, as he thought, in two particular accomplishments: the Lenape became obligated by the terms of the peace even though they had not spoken formally at the conference; and the Susquehannock's lost diplomatic recognition as a nation capable of speaking for themselves.¹¹⁰

Coursey had yet one more reason for satisfactionperhaps the best one. Lord Baltimore had been in London answering official questions ever since the outbreak of all the violence in 1675. The same Protestant politicians who wanted to bring down James Stuart also menaced Baltimore's government of his province. Complaints about Baltimore's bias against Protestants in Maryland were supplemented by his evident inability to protect his back settlers from Indians. To stall hostile action Baltimore lied boldly to the Privy Council's Committee of Trade and Plantations. He told the Lords in 1677 that the "Peace with the Northern Indians bordering upon his Province has held for twenty years and is yearly confirmed by the Indians." Embarrassingly, he was asked for evidence. Coursey's treaty at Albany at last gave Baltimore something in writing to offer the Lords. The treaty did not confirm his words, but it did at least seem to show signs of effort and accomplishment in relations with the Indians.¹¹¹   Perhaps Coursey's treaty weighed in the final decision to let Baltimore keep his government. If so, the treaty served in this regard only to postpone, not to eliminate, Baltimore's loss of his government. What the Lords failed to take in 1677, Maryland's people would seize in 1689. They, too, were dissatisfied with the effects of Baltimore's Indian policies.

Coursey's companion and interpreter, Jacob Young, found no comfort at all in the treaty. Young had been more than a trader among the Susquehannock's. An Onondaga spokesman disclosed that Jacob Young had been "a great Leader and Captain" in the prolonged SusquehannockIroquois wars. Maliciously the Onondagan added that Young had been "a great occasion" of the Iroquois attacks on both Christians and Indians. (It may be noted that, though Coursey's Instructions had been to curry favor with the Iroquois by blaming the Susquehannock's for backwoods killings, the Iroquois matteroffactly admitted their culpability.)¹¹²   Young could see the implications for himself of Maryland's acquiescence in the Susquehannock's' disappearance into Iroquoia. Young's business was at the Chesapeake; the business would depart with its patrons. Perhaps Young also had become Indian enough to feel humiliated by the legal extinction of the nation he had led and befriended. He mourned to Coursey, "If he had known before coming that the Susquehannock's were not to be included in the peace, he would rather have given 20,000 pounds of tobacco than to come." Coursey remembered the remark and turned it against Young on a later occasion.¹¹³

We have called Coursey's triumph an illusion. Now it remains to be seen who actually won the peace. The curious fact is that all the other participantseven the silent Susquehannock's and Lenapegained more than Maryland. Andros preserved New York's monopoly on negotiations with the Indians of his government. As he had gained some of New England's Indians with his "tree of peace" at Scaticook, now he gained the manpower and furtrading expertise of the Susquehannock's. The Iroquois gained the warriors they so badly needed. The Susquehannock's everywhere gained sanctuary from Maryland. Both the Lenape and the Susquehannock's at Delaware Bay were relieved of the menace of attack from Maryland, and with the signing of the treaty Andros relaxed his efforts to make the remaining Susquehannock's at the Bay remove elsewhere.¹¹⁴

Forging Of The Covenant Chain