The regiment had in the mean time been placed on the India establishment; and the usual augmentation of officers arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in March, 1825. On the 22nd of March it embarked at Table Bay on board the Windsor and Vansittart, Indiamen, and landed on the 31st of May at Bombay. It occupied the barracks at Fort George, and, Colonel Napier having been appointed commandant of the fort and garrison, it was commanded by Lieut.-Colonel Scott. It was inspected on the 9th of June by Major-General Samuel Wilson, of the Hon. East India Company's service, who expressed himself much pleased with the steady and veteran appearance of the men, and particularly commended its interior economy.
In June, 1825, the establishment was augmented to a thousand and eight rank and file. During that and the following months the regiment suffered severely from the cholera morbus, which carried off many of the finest and strongest men: the mortality was particularly great among the women and children.
At the close of the rainy season, in September, the regiment was suddenly ordered from Bombay to form part of a field-force assembling at Cutch, with a view to the invasion of Scinde, between the umeers of which country and the Bombay government serious differences had arisen, in consequence of the incursions of a tribe of Mayanas on the Cutch frontier. The regiment embarked from Bombay on the 21st of September, four hundred and sixty-eight strong, landed at Mandavie, in the gulf of Cutch, between the 10th and 15th of October, and marched towards Bhooj, the capital, beyond which city it pitched its tents, on the 2nd of November, near the village of Juruck, where eight thousand men were assembled under the command of Colonel Mark Napier of the Sixth. It was formed in brigade with the Twenty-first regiment of Sipahees and the flank companies of the second Bombay European regiment, under the orders of Lieut.-Colonel Scott of the Sixth; and the command of the regiment devolved on Major Algeo.
On the 3rd of December the troops moved from Juruck to the neighbourhood of Raddiapoor, and, Colonel Napier being obliged to leave the army from indisposition, the command devolved on Lieut.-Colonel Scott of the Sixth. While at this camp six officers and seventy-seven fine recruits, from Yorkshire and Lancashire, joined the regiment.
1826
In January, 1826, the army removed to Madapoor; in February it encamped near the fort and city of Bhooj; and, in March, the umeers of Scinde having yielded to the demands of the Bombay government, the regiments were ordered back to their different stations. The Sixth embarked from Mandavie on the 20th and 21st of March, in pattimars (small craft with open decks); arrived at the presidency on the 26th and 30th of that month, and occupied the barracks on the little island of Colaba. Its loss from sickness, during the first six months after its arrival in India, was one officer and sixty-nine men, and forty-one invalided.
Brevet-Major Thompson, Lieutenant Gordon, and one hundred and forty-six recruits, joined from England in the beginning of May; and, at the inspection on the 18th of that month, Major-General Wilson commended the appearance and orderly conduct of the regiment in quarters, which he repeated at the inspection on the 14th of December. During the year 1826 the regiment lost four officers and fifty men.
1827
Lieut.-Colonel Scott, commandant of the fort and garrison of Bombay, inspected the regiment on the 3rd of May, 1827, and expressed his satisfaction at its appearance and condition. On the 8th of that month six officers and one hundred and eighty men joined from England. The decease of Lieut.-Colonel Scott occurred in October following, and Major Algeo of the Sixth assumed the command of the fort and garrison of Bombay, until the arrival of Colonel Henry Sullivan in November, when Major Algeo resumed the command of the regiment. Colonel Sullivan inspected the regiment on the 15th of December, and every department met with his approval. During the year 1827 the regiment lost two officers and forty men; and invalided twenty-three men.