"The detachment of the 1st West India Regiment under Major Capadose, will embark on board the Sovereign at half-past six on Monday morning, the 25th instant, and the transport will proceed to Barbados with the evening tide of that day.
"The Major-General commanding the district cannot allow these excellent troops to embark without expressing to them his approbation of their excellent conduct and discipline, and his cordial wishes for their health and good fortune. The unremitting attention of Major Capadose in the command of the detachment, and of Brevet-Major Gillard, Captain Hemsworth, and Lieutenant Strong, in that of their respective outposts, have given the Major-General unqualified satisfaction, and he requests those officers to accept his thanks."
The distribution of the regiment was now as follows: 5 companies at Barbados, 1 at St. Lucia, 1 at Dominica, and 1 at Antigua, and this was continued till the 21st of February, 1825, when the head-quarters, with 4 companies, embarked on board the Sovereign transport, and proceeded to the Island of Trinidad, to relieve the 3rd West India Regiment, ordered to be disbanded. The head-quarters landed at Port of Spain, Trinidad, on February 23rd, and were quartered at Orange Grove Barracks, being removed to San Josef Barracks on May 1st, 1828.
In April, 1826, a second lieutenant-colonelcy was re-established in the regiment, Major Henry Capadose being promoted Lieutenant-Colonel, without purchase, on the 22nd of that month.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE BARRA WAR, 1831—THE HURRICANE OF 1831—THE COBOLO EXPEDITION, 1832.
In 1826, owing to the difficulty found in obtaining a sufficiency of recruits in the West Indies, it was decided to send a company of the 1st West India Regiment to Sierra Leone, there to be stationed as a recruiting company, the recruits to be sent to the head-quarters of the regiment as opportunities occurred. The recruiting company embarked at Trinidad on the 17th of April, 1826, in the Duke of York brigantine, and proceeded to Dominica, where it was transhipped to the Jupiter transport. Captain Myers proceeded in charge of it to England, where it was inspected by Major-General Sir James Lyon, and it finally arrived at Sierra Leone on August 16th, 1826. Captain Myers having obtained sick leave in England, Captain Stewart, Lieutenant Brennan, and Ensign Russell, were the officers who had charge of the company.
The recruiting was so successfully carried on, that on July 9th, 1827, 73 recruits joined the head-quarters of the regiment at Trinidad; on December 27th, 1828, 182; and on February 28th, 1829, 39; the last being volunteers from the Royal African Corps. In 1829, Captain Evans and Lieutenant Montgomery proceeded to Sierra Leone to join the recruiting company.