 Beginning in the late 1720s the Mahicans became a point of interest to British missionary organizations, because they were seen as potential conversion targets and to counter the possibility of influence on them from Roman Catholic New France.This effort was managed in New England by a commission headed by the governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Jonathan Belcher.Belcher suggested in 1730 that the province lay out a town in the Mahican lands, and that London missionary groups pay for a mission there.