and spread over a vast and difficult country? Had
she trusted to her navy, as Barrington and others desired, shut the
American ports, and held the towns on the coast and the navigable
rivers, the insurgents might possibly have been driven to submission
without any severe struggle. Conquest by land was decided on. Was
Chatham right in declaring in May, 1777, that England could not conquer
the Americans? Six months later a capable French officer serving in
their army wrote to the French minister of war that, unless his country
declared war against England, the Americans would fail to obtain
independence; so little enthusiasm for the cause was there among them,
so keenly did they feel the privations of the war.[132] In our war in
South Africa of 1899-1902 the Boers showed themselves better soldiers
than the Americans, and were not less brave; they were akin to us in
race, and their country was at least as difficult as America. In both
wars our well-drilled troops constantly found their previous training
useless or worse; in both we received loyal support from numerous
colonials on the spot. While improved means of transport brought South
Africa far nearer to us than America was in the eighteenth century, the
Boers were better prepared for war than the Americans, and were a more
martial people. Yet England conquered them. So far, then, as the
Americans alone were concerned, Chatham's assertion must be denied.

[Sidenote: _ENGLAND'S CONDUCT OF THE WAR._]

Why then had England done so little in those three years? There was much
active loyalty on our side: thousands of colonials fought for the crown
during the course of the war; in the central provinces at least half the
population was for us. Everything depended on the vigour and judgment
with which force was applied. In these respects there was failure both
at home and on the spot. In the first place the effort required was
underestimated. In February, 1774, Gage thought four regiments would
keep things quiet; in 1775 it was believed that 10,000 men would be
enough; in January, 1776, Howe asked for 20,000, in November his
estimate for the next year was 35,000. Germain promised to raise his
army to that number, yet instead of 10,000 men he offered him only 7,800
rank and file. On March 26 he confessed that he could only send 2,900,
and on April 19 that he had to subtract 400 of these for Canada.[133]
The country was strong for coercion, but recruits were hard to raise; it
wi