1781

The regiment remained at Jersey and Guernsey during 1780, and the early part of the following year, in which time, circumstances had occurred in India, which occasioned its removal to that part of the British dominions.

Hyder Ali, a soldier of fortune, had risen to the chief command of the army of the ruler of Mysore, and when the rajah died, leaving his eldest son a minor, the commander-in-chief assumed the title of guardian of the young prince, whom he placed under restraint, and seized on the reins of government. Having a considerable territory under his control, he maintained a formidable military establishment, which he endeavoured to bring into a high state of discipline and efficiency, and he proved a man possessed of activity, courage, and talent. He soon evinced decided hostility to the British interests in India, and formed a league with the French. Hostilities had also commenced between Great Britain and Holland, and the British troops were employed in dispossessing the Dutch of their settlements in Bengal, and on the coast of Coromandel. Thus three powers were opposed to the British interests in India, and Seaforth’s Highlanders were ordered to reinforce the British army in that country.

Towards the end of April, 1781, the regiment was removed from Jersey and Guernsey, to Portsmouth, where it embarked on the 1st of June, for the East Indies, mustering nine-hundred and seventy-five rank and file, all in excellent health.

During the passage the Earl of Seaforth died suddenly in August, and was succeeded in the commission of lieut.-colonel commandant, by Thomas Frederick Mackenzie Humberston, from lieut.-colonel commandant of the one hundredth regiment, by commission dated the 13th of February, 1782.

1782.

At that period the passage to India occupied about ten months; the accommodation in the ships was very limited, and the provision issued to the troops not of good quality; this was attended with serious results, and the regiment lost two hundred and forty-seven men, of scurvy and other diseases, during the passage to India; which is now frequently performed in less than half the time, and under superior regulations, without the loss of a man.

On arriving at Madras in the beginning of April, 1782, the regiment only mustered three hundred and sixty-nine men fit for duty; the pressure of the service did not, however, admit of delay, and all who were able to march, advanced up the country under the command of Lieut.-Colonel James Stuart, and joined the army commanded by Lieut.-General Sir Eyre Coote, K.B., at Chincleput, a town and fortress on the north-east bank of the Palar river, thirty miles from Madras. Chincleput served as a place of arms, and a refuge for the natives, during the war with Hyder Ali. The soldiers of the regiment suffered from having been so long on salt provision; they were also sinewy and robust men, and were more susceptible of the sun’s violence than men of slender habits. Sir Eyre Coote ordered them into quarters, leaving the few, who were healthy, attached to Mc Leod’s Highlanders (now seventy-first regiment) the only European corps then with the army. The men gradually recovered, and in October six hundred rank and file were fit for duty; their constitutions became accustomed to the climate, and their health and efficiency were afterwards preserved under fatigues and privations calculated to exhaust the physical powers of Europeans when endured under an Indian sun.

1783

Six hundred gallant Highlanders appeared in the field, arrayed under the colours of the regiment, to engage in Indian warfare, and on the 10th of April, 1783, when they joined the army assembling under Major-General Stuart, their appearance excited great interest. This force consisted of the seventy-third, and SEVENTY-EIGHTH Highlanders, the hundred and first regiment, a considerable body of native troops and a detachment of Hanoverians, under Colonel Wangenheim; it was destined for the attack of the fortress of Cudalore in the Carnatic, situate on the western shore of the bay of Bengal, which had been taken by the French in 1782. On the 6th of June, 1783, the army took up a position two miles from the town, having its right on the sea, and its left on the Bandipollum hills; the enemy under General Bussy occupied a position half a mile in front of the fort.