At Madras the regiment remained nearly four months, and on the 6th of August, it embarked for the rich and extensive province of Bengal, where it arrived on the 26th of the same month.
1800
For fifteen months the Tenth were stationed in the Presidency of Bengal, in a country abounding in all that is essential to the comfort and even the luxury of man, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Richard Quarrell, and in November, 1800, they were sent down the river Ganges to be embarked for Egypt, which country was overrun by an army of French veterans, vauntingly designated the "Army of the East," and commanded by the celebrated General Buonaparte.
1801
To effect the expulsion of the French "Army of the East" from Egypt, a British force sailed from Europe under General Sir Ralph Abercromby, and about six thousand men from India and the Cape of Good Hope, under Major-General Baird, were appointed to co-operate. To engage in this service, the Tenth sailed from Kidgaree on the 5th of December, joined the expedition, under Major-General Baird, at Bombay, and sailed from thence for the Red Sea. The original design was to proceed to the port of Suez, at the head of the Red Sea, on the borders of Arabia; but the monsoon had commenced before the fleet entered the Red Sea in April, 1801, and Major-General Baird resolved to land at Cosseir, and brave the difficulties of the desert, in the hope of affording important aid to the troops which had landed in Egypt from Europe.
Eight companies of the Tenth arrived at Cosseir on the 15th of June, and the remainder of the regiment, having been separated by the monsoon gales, was some days later.[6] On landing, the country presented a frightfully desolate prospect, but the soldiers commenced their march through the desert with cheerful alacrity;[7] although suffering from excessive heat and dysentery, occasioned by bad water.
The march was made during the night. A little way from Cosseir the soldiers entered a ravine, which appeared to be the old bed of a river, along which they travelled three days, when it terminated at Moilah. From Moilah the desert had a hard gravelly soil, generally, until the troops arrived at Baromba, where the first habitable spot was met with after leaving Cosseir; not a single hut having previously been seen. The troops suffered greatly from thirst and oppressive heat, with an almost irresistible inclination to sleep; some soldiers straggling from the line of march, that they might lie down and sleep, lost their lives. The little town of Baromba lay on the borders of the desert, and the Arabs offered milk, eggs, and poultry for sale, in great abundance, and very cheap.
On arriving at Kenna, the regiment was ordered to proceed to Girgee, a large town of Upper Egypt, situate about a quarter of a mile from the river Nile. The regimental baggage was sent to Suez, but the "Cavera" transport foundered at sea, and all the baggage, books, &c. of the Tenth were lost.
In the meantime, the British army from Europe had triumphed over the French before Alexandria, where General Sir Ralph Abercromby was mortally wounded; the French troops at Cairo had also surrendered, and the siege of Alexandria was the next undertaking. The Tenth embarked from Girgee in dgerms, and proceeded down the Nile to the Island of Rhoda, where they encamped. On the 2nd of August they again embarked, and proceeded to Rosetta, a town celebrated for the beauty of its environs; beyond the Nile lay the richest parts of the Delta, the garden of Egypt. From Rosetta the regiment proceeded to El-Hamed, and joined the forces encamped at that place.
Alexandria surrendered in the beginning of September, and Egypt was thus delivered; the French "Army of the East" being forced to evacuate a country from whence Buonaparte had vainly imagined he should extend his conquests throughout Asia.