There were sixty miles to go beyond the lake, and a badly
broken sixty miles they were, before the first settlement
of French Canadians could be reached. There was no trail.
Provisions were almost at an end. Sickness increased.
The sick began to die. 'And what was it all for? A chance
to get killed! The end of the march was Quebec
--impregnable!' On the 24th of October Arnold, with
fifteen other men, began 'a race against time, a race
against starvation' by pushing on ahead in a desperate
effort to find food. Within a week he had reached the
first settlement, after losing three of his five boats
with everything in them. Three days later, and not one
day too soon, the French Canadians met his seven hundred
famishing men with a drove of cattle and plenty of
provisions. The rest of the way was toilsome enough. But
it seemed easy by comparison. The habitants were friendly,
but very shy about enlisting, in spite of Washington's
invitation to 'range yourselves under the standard of
general liberty.' The Indians were more responsive, and
nearly fifty joined on their own terms. By the 8th of
November Arnold was marching down the south shore of the
St Lawrence, from the Chaudiere to Point Levis, in full
view of Quebec. He had just received a dispatch ten days
old from Montgomery by which he learned that St Johns
was expected to fall immediately and that Schuyler was
no longer with the army at the front. But he could not
tell when the junction of forces would be made; and he
saw at once that Quebec was on the alert because every
boat had been either destroyed or taken over to the other
side.