Stuyvesant was lenient in his demands, but he had special reasons for being so. A few days after his leaving New Amsterdam the Indians attacked several settlements in the Dutch colony, “murdering 100 men in nine hours.” On September 2 (12), the day after the surrender of Fort Trinity and the date on which Stuyvesant reported his success, the council informed the governor by letter that the Indians had begun hostilities and committed many murders.[36] They questioned the sagacity of subduing distant places at the risk of losing “the old property.” They promised to do their utmost in defending the colony against the savages, leaving it with Stuyvesant to act according to his judgment in the matter; but they requested him to send a speedy reply, and from the tenure of the missive it is clear that they would rather have him return to defend New Netherland than to gain some slight advantage on the Delaware. The letter was handed to him in the afternoon of September 13 (23), the day before Rising agreed to surrender. It is clear that these misfortunes influenced Stuyvesant’s dealings with the Swedes, and had the letter arrived shortly after Fort Trinity was captured and before Christina was besieged, it is more than likely that he would have returned to New Amsterdam, without further molesting the Swedish colony. The council sent a second letter to the governor some time after September 3 (13), advising him to destroy Fort Christina in case it was given into his hands, causing the Swedes to remove from there, otherwise “for the preservation of the most important object and the consolation of the inhabitants ... [to] make speedily a provisional treaty with the governor of the Swedes in regard to the fort and the land of Christina ... and then ... [return home] on the first opportunity with the ships and troops, to preserve what is left.” It is not known whether or not this letter reached him before the treaty was signed, but it may have come into his hands on the fifteenth (twenty-fifth). At any rate half an hour after the Swedish soldiers had marched out of the fort, he appeared “with his officers and entire council” before Rising in Christina, offering to hand over the fort to the Swedes and to make with them an offensive and defensive league on the condition that the Dutch be allowed to dwell undisturbed in possession of the land below Christina River and that the present troubles “be forgotten and forgiven.” The Swedes were to remain in possession of all the land north of the fortress along the Delaware, “the country was large enough for them both.” Rising was naturally surprised at this unexpected turn of affairs, and answered the Dutch governor that the proposition seemed somewhat strange to him. He thought it was too late to come to any such agreement, but he requested Stuyvesant to present the offers in writing, and promised that a reply would be delivered as soon as the Swedish council had considered the matter.[37]