oblem of food. They might have made
Washington more uncomfortable by forays and alarms. Only reluctantly,
however, did Howe, who took over the command on October 10, 1775, admit
to himself that this was a real war. He still hoped for settlement
without further bloodshed. Washington was glad to learn that the British
were laying in supplies of coal for the winter. It meant that they
intended to stay in Boston, where, more than in any other place, he
could make trouble for them.

Washington had more on his mind than the creation of an army and the
siege of Boston. He had also to decide the strategy of the war. On the
long American sea front Boston alone remained in British hands. New
York, Philadelphia, Charleston and other ports farther south were all,
for the time, on the side of the Revolution. Boston was not a good
naval base for the British, since it commanded no great waterway leading
inland. The sprawling colonies, from the rock-bound coast of New England
to the swamps and forests of Georgia, were strong in their incoherent
vastness. There were a thousand miles of seacoast. Only rarely were
considerable settlements to be found more than a hundred miles distant
from salt water. An army marching to the interior would have increasing
difficulties from transport and supplies. Wherever water routes could
be used the naval power of the British gave them an advantage. One such
route was the Hudson, less a river than a navigable arm of the sea,
leading to the heart of the colony of New York, its upper waters almost
touching Lake George and Lake Champlain, which in turn led to the
St. Lawrence in Canada and thence to the sea. Canada was held by the
British; and it was clear that, if they should take the city of New
York, they might command the whole line from the mouth of the Hudson to
the St. Lawrence, and so cut off New England from the other colonies and
overcome a divided enemy. To foil this policy Washington planned to hold
New York and to capture Canada. With Canada in line the union of the
colonies would be indeed continental, and, if the British were driven
from Boston, they would have no secure foothold in North America.

The danger from Canada had always been a source of anxiety to the
English colonies. The French had made Canada a base for attempts to
drive the English from North America. During many decades war had raged
along the Canadian frontier. With the cession of Canada to Britain in
1763 this danger had