pursuit through the forest. It took him twenty days to hew his
way twenty miles, to the upper waters of the Hudson near Fort
Edward. When there on the 30th of July he had communications open
from the Hudson to the St. Lawrence.

Fortune seemed to smile on Burgoyne. He had taken many guns and
he had proved the fighting quality of his men. But his cheerful
elation had, in truth, no sound basis. Never during the two and a
half months of bitter struggle which followed was he able to
advance more than twenty-five miles from Fort Edward. The moment
he needed transport by land he found himself almost helpless.
Sometimes his men were without food and equipment because he had
not the horses and carts to bring supplies from the head of water
at Fort Anne or Fort George, a score of miles away. Sometimes he
had no food to transport. He was dependent on his communications
for every form of supplies. Even hay had to be brought from
Canada, since, in the forest country, there was little food for
his horses. The perennial problem for the British in all
operations was this one of food. The inland regions were too
sparsely populated to make it possible for more than a few
soldiers to live on local supplies. The wheat for the bread of
the British soldier, his beef and his pork, even the oats for his
horse, came, for the most part, from England, at vast expense for
transport, which made fortunes for contractors. It is said that
the cost of a pound of salted meat delivered to Burgoyne on the
Hudson was thirty shillings. Burgoyne had been told that the
inhabitants needed only protection to make them openly loyal and
had counted on them for supplies. He found instead the great mass
of the people hostile and he doubted the sincerity even of those
who professed their loyalty.