An election in England in October gave the ministry an
increased majority and with this renewed determination. When
Holland, long a secret enemy, became an open one in December,
1780, Admiral Rodney descended on the Dutch island of St.
Eustatius, in the West Indies, where the Americans were in the
habit of buying great quantities of stores and on the 3d of
February, 1781, captured the place with two hundred merchant
ships, half a dozen men-of-war, and stores to the value of three
million pounds. The capture cut off one chief source of supply to
the United States. By January, 1781, a crisis in respect to money
came to a head. Fierce mutinies broke out because there was no
money to provide food, clothing, or pay for the army and the men
were in a destitute condition. "These people are at the end of
their resources," wrote Rochambeau in March. Arnold's treason,
the halting voices in Congress, the disasters in the South, the
British success in cutting off supplies of stores from St.
Eustatius, the sordid problem of money--all these were well
fitted to depress the worn leader so anxiously watching on the
Hudson. It was the dark hour before the dawn.
CHAPTER XI. YORKTOWN
The critical stroke of the war was near.
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