News of this event arrived in India in May 1793; in June the Thirty-sixth regiment was ordered to prepare to take the field; it marched soon afterwards against the French settlement of Pondicherry, on the Coromandel coast; the troops employed on this service were commanded by Colonel John Brathwaite.
The siege of Pondicherry was commenced in the early part of August, the army encamping in a thick wood where tigers were so numerous that the natives durst not travel in the night. On the 22d of August a white flag was displayed by the garrison, with a request to be allowed to surrender. The French soldiers in the fortress had embraced democratical principles, and were particularly insubordinate; they insisted that the Governor should surrender; but after the white flag was displayed, they fired two shells, which killed several men. During the night they were guilty of every species of outrage: breaking into houses, and becoming intoxicated. On the following morning a number of them environed the house of the Governor-General Charmont, and threatened to hang him before the door, when application was made to the British for protection. The English soldiers rushed into the town, overpowered the insurgents, rescued the Governor, and preserved the inhabitants from further violence. After this service the regiment returned to Madras.[15]
1794.
During the year 1794 the Thirty-sixth regiment was stationed at Trichinopoly.
1795.
In 1795 the regiment proceeded to Negapatam.
1796.
During the years 1796 and 1797 the regiment was stationed at Warriore, near Trichinopoly.
1798.
1799.
In the beginning of 1798 the regiment was stationed at Pondicherry, and subsequently at Wallahabad. The men fit for service were afterwards drafted into the Seventy-fourth and Seventy-sixth regiments, and the remainder of the Thirty-sixth embarked at Madras for Europe on the 15th of October 1798. Previously to the regiment returning to England, orders were issued by the Governor in Council, and by the Commander-in-Chief of Madras, dated 24th of September and 14th of October 1798, which are highly complimentary of the regiment, and are inserted at [page 121] of the Appendix. The want of convoy caused the fleet of Indiamen to be detained three months at St. Helena, and the regiment did not arrive in England until the 26th of July 1799, when it landed at Greenhithe;—it subsequently proceeded to Cirencester, and thence to Winchester, where the corps was completed to its establishment by volunteers from the militia.