{December.}

Contrary to expectation, a fleet of transports for the reception of
the troops reached Rhode Island, on its way to Boston, in the month of
December. But, before its arrival, the preconceived suspicions of
congress had ripened into conviction several circumstances combined to
produce this result. General Burgoyne, dissatisfied with the
accommodations prepared for his officers in Boston, had, after a
fruitless correspondence with General Heath, addressed a letter to
General Gates, in which he complained of the inconvenient quarters
assigned his officers, as a breach of the articles of the convention.
This complaint was considered by congress as being made for the
purpose of letting in the principle, that the breach of one article of
a treaty discharges the injured party from its obligations.

This suspicion was strengthened by the indiscreet hesitation of
General Burgoyne to permit the resolution requiring a descriptive list
of his troops to be executed. His subsequent relinquishment of the
objection did not remove the impression it had made.

It was also alleged, that the number of transports was not sufficient
to convey the troops to Europe; nor was it believed possible that Sir
William Howe could have laid in, so expeditiously, a sufficient stock
of provisions for the voyage.

These objections to the embarkation of Burgoyne's troops were
strengthened by some trivial infractions of the convention, which, it
was contended, gave congress a strict right to detain them. It was
stipulated that "the arms" should be delivered up; and it appeared
that several cartouch boxes and other military accoutrements, supposed