vance all who had enlisted.

[146] "Writings of Washington," iii, 238-241.

CHAPTER XIV

THE WINTER IN BOSTON

When the British army went into winter quarters it was nearly at the end
of its difficulties concerning food. Supplies from England had been very
meagre, and the occasional raids had provided poorly for the wants of
the town. But since October matters had improved, largely because of the
criticism of the English Whigs in Parliament. These pointed out the
inactivity of the troops, the humiliation of the situation, the sickness
and want in Boston. In order that nothing should be left undone to
remedy the last, the perplexed ministry spent money lavishly to
provision its garrison. Five thousand oxen, fourteen thousand sheep,
with a great number of hogs, were purchased, and shipped alive.
Vegetables, preserved by a new process, were bought in quantities; wheat
and flour were collected; wood, coal, hay, and other fodder, with beer,
porter, rum, Geneva, and the more innocent vinegar, were generously
provided. To be sure, the commissions on all these purchases provided
fortunes for the relatives of those in office, and the ship-owners found
excuses for setting sail as late as possible, in order to increase the
hire of their craft. As a result, much of the vast expense--some six
hundred thousand pounds for provisions alone--was wasted. Contrary gales
detained the ships; the live stock died by wholesale, and was thrown
overboard; the vegetables spoiled; and numbers of the ships were lost
outright. Others, arriving without convoy at the American coast, were
captured by the watchful privateers. But of such vast supplies enough
reached Boston to relieve the worst distresses of the inhabitants.
Though the poorer of the Whigs had either to sign humiliating
declarations in order to share in the rations of the troops, or else to
continue on meagre fare, there was enough in the general market for the
well-to-do among them to supply themselves. John Andrews, for instance,
though he lived at the rate of six or seven hundred sterling a year,
after October ate scarcely three meals of salt meat, "for I was
determined to eat fresh provissions, while it was to be got, let it cost
what it would."

There was, however, for months a great shortage of fuel. As the winter
set in early, and with severity, large quantities were needed, and there
was little on hand. The troops, of their own initiative, had already,
even in the su