And I maun deserve it before I can crave.”

INDIA—GIBRALTAR—CEYLON—1777–1798.

Whilst the American continent was the scene of a sanguinary and bitter strife, the embers of war were being quickened into flame in another and far distant province of our vast colonial empire. In India the usurpation of Hyder Ali had occasioned the interference of the British, awakening the ill-disguised hatred of the native race against the grasping policy of the British, whose cupidity had already appropriated much of their native land, and whose avarice was only too ready to embrace any farther opportunity for aggrandisement. The incendiaries of France had been busy sowing the seeds of jealousy and distrust of the British rule, which soon produced its malignant fruits in the cruel and remorseless war that ensued. Thus encircled and assailed by enemies from so many quarters at once, our Government, in its dire extremity, called upon the patriotism of the country to supply the means of defence. The result was most satisfactory; and in no case did the appeal receive a more cordial response than amongst our clansmen, from whence were drawn, in the course of eighteen months, upwards of 12,500 Highlanders. From the following list of the regiments raised in 1778 to meet this emergency, the subject of our present sketch may be selected:—

72d Regiment, or Royal Manchester Volunteers,disbanded in 1783.
73d Highland Regiment,numbered the 71stRegiment in 1786.
74th Highland Regiment,disbanded in 1784.
75th Prince of Wales’ Regiment,disbanded in 1783.
76th Highland Regiment,disbanded in 1784.
77th Regiment, or Athole Highlanders,disbanded in 1783.
78th Highland Regiment,numbered the 72dRegiment in 1786.
79th Regiment, or Royal Liverpool Volunteers,disbanded in 1784.
80th Regiment, or Royal Edinburgh Volunteers,disbanded in 1784.
81st Highland Regiment,disbanded in 1783.
82d Regiment,disbanded in 1784.
83d Regiment, or Royal Glasgow Volunteers,disbanded in 1783.

The Earl of Cromarty and his son, Lord MʻLeod, having been partners in the guilt of rebellion in 1745, were made partners in the punishment which followed. At length pardoned, Lord MʻLeod was permitted to pass into honourable exile. He found employment in the Swedish army, where he rose to the rank of Lieutenant-General. Opportunely venturing to return, he was unexpectedly received with much favour by the King, and his offer to raise a Highland regiment on his forfeited estates gladly accepted. His success was worthy of his zeal; and at Elgin, in 1778, he appeared at the head of a magnificent corps of 840 Highlanders, 236 Lowlanders, and 34 English and Irish, which were accordingly regimented as the Seventy-third, afterwards our Seventy-first Regiment. The success of this corps induced the formation of a second battalion, which soon attained its complement. Although styled the “Glasgow Highland Light Infantry,” that western metropolis can boast no legitimate claim to an interest in its formation beyond the thirty-four English and Irish recruits, who, it is said, hailed from Glasgow. It acquired the property, at a later period, when a second battalion was being grafted upon the parent stem, when many of its citizens enlisting, manifested so strong a predilection in its favour, as induced the government to confer the present title, and ever since the Glasgowegians have proudly adopted the Seventy-first as their own.

Almost immediately on its completion, the first battalion was embarked for India. Landing at Madras in 1780, it became the nucleus for the Highland Brigade, which the subsequent and successive arrival of the Seventy-second, Seventy-third, Seventy-fourth, Seventy-fifth, and Ninety-fourth Highland regiments constituted. These earned distinctions for gallant service almost exceptional to themselves. It is worthy of note—eliciting our surprise, yet reflecting infinite credit on our arms—that notwithstanding the insignificance of the British force, opposed to the countless hosts of the Indian chiefs—generally as one to ten—we almost always prevailed. Had the native pride been less rampant, and the Indian chiefs submitted to the superior generalship of the French officers sent out to discipline their troops—wherein was admirable material for good soldiers—the danger to the British would have been greater, and success more exceptional. Fortunately for us, the incapacity of these sable chiefs to command, and their exceeding fear of dictation, lost them many an opportunity, and in the end proved our safety. It is strangely true of the Indian soldier that, in the field, when well led, he behaves with the utmost firmness, whilst, in defence of fortifications or walled towns, he betrays a weakness which altogether belies any favourable impression of his resolution previously formed. Notwithstanding the overwhelming superiority of the enemy who, under Hyder Ali, threatened annihilation to the small force of 4600 men, including the first battalion of the Seventy-third (as we must as yet call the Seventy-first), these, under Major-General Sir Hector Munro, dared to advance into the interior. Meanwhile, a division of 3000 men, under Lieut.-Colonel Baillie, descending from the north, strove to effect a junction with the army of General Munro. The hesitation of the latter, when in presence of the foe, to prosecute his advance, and secure his junction with the former, placed the small force of Colonel Baillie in a position of peril. This opportunity, vigorously improved by Hyder Ali, occasioned its destruction, which, with two companies of the Seventy-third, and other troops under Lieut.-Colonel Fletcher, had, despite the treachery of the guides, threaded their way through the jungle, and arrived as a reinforcement from Major-General Munro, but in reality as so many more victims who should be engulfed in the fatal ruin so nigh. The terrible disaster which ensued, and the calamitous result which yielded so many brave men prisoners into the cruel, merciless power of Hyder Ali, can never fail to inspire feelings of the truest sympathy. With a hundred thousand men, he descended with the most sanguinary fury upon this little and devoted column. Even when the whole ammunition was, by an unlucky accident, blown into the air in their very midst, and the British guns silenced, they remained unconquered. The converging hosts of the enemy drew closer around the little band of heroes, and poured in upon them a deadly fire of artillery and musketry, to which they could no longer reply. Reduced to 500 men, “History cannot produce an instance, for fortitude, and intrepidity, and desperate resolution, to equal the exploits of this heroic band.... The mind, in the contemplation of such a scene, and such a situation as theirs was, is filled at once with admiration, with astonishment, with horror, and with awe. To behold formidable and impenetrable bodies of horse, of infantry, and of artillery, advancing from all quarters, flashing savage fury, levelling the numberless instruments of slaughter, and darting destruction around, was a scene to appal even something more than the strongest human resolution; but it was beheld by this little band with the most undaunted and immoveable firmness.... Like the swelling waves of the ocean, however, when agitated by a storm, fresh columns incessantly poured in upon them with redoubled fury, which at length brought so many to the ground, and weakened them so considerably, that they were unable longer to withstand the dreadful and tremendous shock; and the field soon presented a horrid picture of the most inhuman cruelties and unexampled carnage.”[[C]] Happy were those who found on the burning sands of Perambaukam “a soldier’s grave;” happy indeed, compared with the cruel fate of the survivors, who, reduced from 4000, scarce mustered 200 prisoners, nearly all of whom were wounded. Colonel Baillie, stripped, wounded in three places, was dragged into the presence of the victor, who exulted over him with the imperious tone of a conqueror. Baillie replied with the true spirit of a soldier, and soon after died. The remainder, cast into the dungeons of Bangalore, scantily fed on unwholesome food, were doomed to endure a miserable imprisonment for three long years. These trials, however, served only to bring out, in brighter effulgence, the characteristics of the Highland hero. “These brave men,” says General Stewart, “equally true to their religion and their allegiance, were so warmly attached to their officers (amongst whom was one afterwards destined to win a mighty fame as their gallant leader—Sir David Baird), that they picked out the best part of their own food and secretly reserved it for their officers; thus sacrificing their own lives for that of their officers, as the result proved, for out of 111, only 30 feeble and emaciated men ever emerged from that almost living tomb.” Mrs Grant says in her narrative, “Daily some of their companions dropped before their eyes, and daily they were offered liberty and riches in exchange for this lingering torture, on condition of relinquishing their religion and taking the turban. Yet not one could be prevailed upon to purchase life on these terms. These Highlanders were entirely illiterate; scarcely one of them could have told the name of any particular sect of Christians, and all the idea they had of the Mahommedan religion was, that it was adverse to their own, and to what they had been taught by their fathers; and that, adopting it, they would renounce Him who had died that they might live, and who loved them, and could support them in all their sufferings. The great outlines of their religion, the peculiar tenets which distinguish it from any other, were early and deeply impressed on their minds, and proved sufficient in the hour of trial.

[C]. Narrative of the Military Operations on the Coromandel Coast from 1780 to 1784, by Captain Innes Monro, of the Seventy-third Regiment.

‘Rise, Muses rise, add all your tuneful breath;

These must not sleep in darkness and in death.’

“It was not theirs to meet Death in the field of honour; while the mind, wrought up with fervid eagerness, went forth in search of him. They saw his slow approach, and though sunk into languid debility, such as quenches the fire of mere temperament, they never once hesitated at the alternative set before them.”