By this treaty, the whole of Canada, part of Louisiana, together with Cape Breton, and the other islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, were ceded to Great Britain. In the West Indies, the islands of Tobago, Dominica, St. Vincent, and Grenada were retained by Great Britain; but Martinique, Guadaloupe, Marigalante, and St. Lucia were restored to France. In the East Indies, the French obtained the restitution of their settlements, but agreed not to erect any fortifications in Bengal. Minorca was restored to England in exchange for Belle-Isle, which had been captured by the British in 1761, and it was stipulated that the fortifications of Dunkirk should be demolished. Spain ceded East and West Florida to Great Britain, in return for the restitution of the Havannah, Manilla, and all the places which Spain had lost since the commencement of the war.
1765
In this year the THIRTY-FIRST regiment was embarked for Pensacola, the capital of West Florida, which country had been ceded to Great Britain by Spain at the peace of Fontainebleau; on the passage out, the transport having the regiment on board put into Blue-field Bay, Jamaica, at the time the yellow fever was raging with great violence in that island; the THIRTY-FIRST took the infection, and unfortunately carried it to Pensacola, where the soldiers continued to suffer most severely; so great was the mortality, and so rapid the disease in its course, that the regiment could not supply men to carry their comrades to the grave. The men who attended the funerals of their brother soldiers in the morning, while the regiment was strong enough to preserve some ceremony, were, in many instances, consigned to the tomb in the evening. It appears by the newspapers of the period, in which allusion is made to the mortality, that at one period of its illness the regiment could muster only a corporal and six men for duty.
1772
The regiment remained in the Floridas, garrisoning alternately St. Augustine and Pensacola, the capitals of East and West Florida, until the autumn of 1772, when it was embarked for St. Vincent, to take part in reducing to submission the refractory Caribs in that island.
The island of St. Vincent was captured from the French, in 1762, and was ceded to Great Britain at the peace concluded in the following year; it contained two tribes of natives, called the red and black Caribs, the former being the aborigines, and the latter having sprung from a cargo of African slaves, who escaped from a vessel which was wrecked on the island. The Caribs were devoted to the French interest; they were dangerous and troublesome neighbours to the English planters, and it was found necessary to restrain their conduct, and enforce obedience to a few salutary regulations. They were, however, of a resolute spirit, possessed many thickly wooded fastnesses, and resisted all attempts to restrain their roving propensities and mode of life with such determination, that it became necessary to augment the military force on the island. Although they were contemptible opponents in skill, yet the nature of the climate, and the natural difficulties of the country, being thickly wooded where they inhabited, rendered the service extremely tedious and arduous.
1773
On the 14th of January, 1773, the THIRTY-FIRST regiment fell into an ambuscade, and sustained some loss; the commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Walsh, was among the killed.
1774