(Signed) "J. Malcolm, Brig.-Gen."
1811
Leaving Surat, the regiment marched, in December, 1811, for its new cantonments at Ruttapore, near Kaira, in the northern division of Guzerat, where a commodious set of buildings had been erected on a beautiful site near the river, under the direction of Captain Goodfellow, of the Bombay Engineers, expressly for the use of the Seventeenth. Around the regimental cantonments the officers erected very handsome and substantial houses of stone.
1812
On the 1st of January, 1812, Colonel Evan Lloyd was promoted to the rank of Major-general, and the Honourable Lincoln Stanhope was appointed Lieut.-Colonel in the regiment, in addition to Lieut.-Colonel Wm. Carden, who was appointed in 1811.
1813
The regiment had not occupied its new cantonments many months before it was visited by the epidemical fever frequently so destructive in the fruitful province of Guzerat, and it carried off many thousands of the natives, and numbers of Europeans. In the months of October, November, and December, 1812, and January, 1813, four officers and seventy-three men of the regiment died, chiefly of this disease. This was followed by an equally destructive famine in Guzerat, and the provinces to the westward, where no rain had fallen during the two preceding years. Vegetation had nearly ceased altogether; the rivers were reduced to mere rills, and the nearly exhausted springs allowed a very limited irrigation around the villages. Under this affliction, hundreds of the natives died daily, and Guzerat, which is celebrated as one of the richest provinces of the Mogul empire, abounding in rice, corn, sugar, fruits of various kinds, cattle, and game, presented a barren and woful spectacle.
1814
1815
In the years 1813, 1814, and 1815, strong detachments of the regiment were employed in active service in the field, under the command of General Sir George Holmes, and Colonels Barclay and East. In December, 1815, the regiment formed part of the force which penetrated the barren and mountainous province of Cutch, a country abounding in lofty hills, extensive woods, and uncultivated plains, where the natives breed very fine horses. Into this country British troops had never before penetrated; and the army had to traverse a sandy tract of land, separating Cutch from Guzerat, called the Runn. This tract presented a wild and singular aspect; it appeared as an arm of the sea from which the ocean had receded, or the dry bed of an immense river, ten miles broad, and devoid of verdure or vegetation. The Seventeenth, being at the head of the army, entered this sandy waste between six and seven o'clock in the morning; in some places the ground was hard and safe; in others, insulated quicksands offered some obstruction, which would have proved serious impediments in the night; and broad streaks of saline incrustations giving to the ground the appearance of being covered with snow, were met with; also prawns and mullet dried in the sun; the tracts of large birds were also seen, and on approaching the opposite bank the traces of wild apes were perceptible. In three hours the Seventeenth reached the boundary of this sandy waste, without having met with hostile opposition, which had been expected. The European infantry crossed the Runn in three hours and a half, and the main body, with the cannon, which had to be dragged by ropes in some places, in four hours.