In another scene, before the summer ended, the British had taken New York and made themselves masters of the lower Hudson.
Had they reached in the same season the upper Hudson by way of Lake Champlain they would have struck blows doubly staggering.

This Arnold saw, and his object was to delay, if he could not defeat, the British advance.

There was no road through the dense forest by the shores of Lake Champlain and Lake George to the upper Hudson.

The British must go down the lake in boats.

This General Carleton had foreseen and he had urged that with the fleet sent to Quebec should be sent from England, in sections, boats which could be quickly carried past the rapids of the Richelieu River and launched on Lake Champlain.