They were the intelligent race for which the planet had been created.
Actually it came down to the question: "What was to be done against a more intelligent race?"
They were both intelligent races and had no reason to fight.
Man is the only intelligent race produced by any planet.
As an intelligent race, we should be beyond all that.
Why believe we were the first intelligent race they had contacted?
"But how could an intelligent race develop on a planet like this?"
But you are the most intelligent race in the galaxy.
Or did intelligent races live even in the water here?
How do you evolve life at all, let alone an intelligent race?