The particular gains of the moment, substantial as they were, appear slight today in comparison with the treaty's more longlasting achievement. This was disclosed in a speech of the Mohawks, the Indians who had always been physically and politically closest of the Iroquois to Albany. "We are glad," they told Coursey, that the Governor General bath been pleased to destinate and appoint this place to speake with all Nations in peace . . . especially that his Honor hath been pleased to grant you the privilege for to speake with us here . . . for the Covenant that is betwixt the Governor Generall and us is Inviolable; yea, so strong that if the very thunder should breake upon the Covenant Chain, it would not breake it asunder.

Thus the historic Iroquois covenant chain came into effective existence. The many treaties binding New York to its various Indians had now become institutionalized in an organization.¹¹⁵

Even in its origins the chain implied Iroquois primacy among the Indians bound together by it, but this was no forest empire created by conquest. Though the national identity of the Susquehannock's was submerged, there can be small doubt that the decisions at Albany, as at Shackamaxon, were made by discussion and consent. The key figure throughout was Edmund Andros. It was Andros' intervention that brought refuge to the harassed Susquehannock's, and Andros' maneuvers that frustrated Maryland's intrigues at the Delaware Bay. It was also Andros who gave the Iroquois a new lease on life. Before his coming, the Iroquois had been demoralized and enfeebled, losing battles on every side. The sudden change in their fortunes was the product of New York's power used for New York's purposes. As Andros delicately reported to England, "Colonel Coursey hadd answers to his satisfaction," while Andros got "reitterated assurances from said Indyans of their faithfullnesse."¹¹⁶

What we see in the 1677 treaty is the further development of the Indian policy adopted by Andros in 1675. Andros' policy was to rely upon favored instruments among the Indians in order to control the more unruly elements. He chose the Mohawks to be his special friends in New York, and through the Mohawks he drew under his wing the whole Iroquois League. In his government of Delaware Bay, Anclros' instrument was at first the Lenape nation. After 1677 these favored instruments came into closer relationship to each other through the enlargement and modification of the Iroquois League. Previously the League had "adopted" defeated nations and communities. Now it acquired a new flexibility of organization that made possible a special relationship with the Mahicans at Scaticook and the Lenape at the Delaware, both of which peoples were within Andros' jurisdiction and under his protection.¹¹⁷

By drawing the chief belligerents into one organization the new confederation resolved in one moment all the Indian conflicts that had plagued the Hudson, Delaware, and Susquehanna valleys since the start of the beaver wars. All of the Indians within the confederation were immeasurably strengthened by it; but, as the Mohawks so quickly had perceived, the Iroquois were strengthened most of all. Their backs were now protected by inclusion in the covenant chain of the Mahicans and Lenape, and their fighting strength was greatly enhanced by the adopted Susquehannock's. If Andros had sponsored the covenant chain primarily for his own purposes, he certainly had also served the Indians well. The revitalized Iroquois rebounded from their low point in 1674 to begin the series of military and diplomatic maneuvers that were to make their covenant chain a balancing factor in English interprovincial politics and a third power between England and France. To the Iroquois, covenant chain relationships did not imply passive neutrality. In their eyes the peace within the chain established a secure base from which an aggressive policy could be conducted against outsiders. Covenant chain power had its limits, as the Iroquois themselves well knew; the desires of Albany's merchants and New York's Governor could never be flouted. But the interests of Albany were firmly committed to the prosperity of the Indian trade, and an enlarged covenant chain meant an enlarged trade. Albany soon showed great sympathy for Iroquois ambitions.