Before 1828, however, a reform was begun by the government, in addition to what had been long doing usefully by the Moravians, the New England Company, and other societies. It was pursued during eight or nine years with great success, although the plan was defective in several material points. The character of what was accomplished may be inferred from the following extracts from the Parliamentary papers of 1834, No. 617. In 1828, General Darling reported to Earl Dalhousie as follows on the subject:— The Mississaquas of Rice Lake, consisting of 317 souls, and the Mohawks of Bay of Quinti, and the Rice Lake have recently been converted to Christianity by the Methodist society, who have introduced missionaries among the Indians here, and in every part of Upper Canada, where they have been able to obtain a footing. These missionaries come chiefly from the United States, and belong to the “Canada Conference Missionary Society,” auxiliary to the “Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the State of New York,” from which they receive a small salary, seldom exceeding £40 a year. It is undoubted that they have done some good, by influencing the Indians to embrace Christianity, and have inculcated the first principles of civilization, particularly in the tribes now under consideration, which shows itself in the desire which they have expressed to be collected in a village, and have lands allotted them for cultivation. The Mohawks of the Bay of Quinti were separated from the Mohawk nation about the year 1784, and settled in the Bay of Quinti; amongst these are some becoming tolerable farmers. They have in many instances assumed the dress of the European, which is sometimes mixed with their native attire, presenting a curious compound of barbarism and civilization. _Chippawas under the Chief Yellow head._—These Indians amount, upon an average, to 550 souls; they occupy the lands about Lake Simcoe, Holland River, and the unsettled county in the rear of York. They have expressed a strong desire to be admitted to Christianity, and to adopt the habits of civilized life; in these respects they may be classed with the Mississaquas of the Bay of Quinti, and Rice Lake, but are at present in a more savage state. _Mississaquas of the Credit._—The present state of this tribe, amounting to 180 souls, who were lately notorious for drunkenness and debauchery, affords, in my humble opinion, the strongest encouragement to extend to the other tribes now disposed to Christianity and civilization, the experiment that has been tried by his Excellency Sir Peregrine Maitland, with every promise of success with these Mississaquas.