Contact between the races was thus continuous and, despite occasional raids and skirmishes, relatively peaceful. The stability was ostensibly reinforced by the terms of a "peace" and "league" that [Powhatan Chief] Opechancanough confirmed with Governor Yeardley in 1621..Opechancanough promised to encourage trade with the settlers, to assist in the search for the South Sea and "certain mynes," to come to terms on mutual defense, to permit the exchange of families...and since, he told the receptive [George] Thorpe, God apparently "loved [the English] better than them," to take instruction in the Christian religion.