John Mitchell.
Ewen M’Lennan.
George Gordon.
Staff.
Chaplain.—Wm. Mackenzie.
Surgeon.—John Walters.
Adjutant.—James Finney.
Quarter-master.—George Gunn.
The regiment was embodied at Elgin, in May 1778, and was inspected by General Skene, when it was found so effective that not one man was rejected. In the month of August the regiment marched to Leith for embarkation to the East Indies; but they had not been quartered long in that town when symptoms of disaffection began to appear among them. They complained of an infringement of their engagements, and that part of their pay and bounty was in arrear. Being wrought upon by some emissaries, the men refused to embark, and, marching out of Leith with pipes playing, and two plaids fixed on poles instead of colours, they took up a position in the immediate vicinity of Edinburgh on Arthur’s Seat, on which they remained several days. During this time they were amply supplied with provisions and ammunition by the inhabitants of the capital, who had espoused their quarrel. The causes of complaint having been inquired into, after much negotiation, in which the Earls of Dunmore and Seaforth, Sir James Grant of Grant, and other gentlemen connected with the Highlands, took an active and prominent part, the grievances were removed, and the soldiers being satisfied, marched down the hill with pipes playing, with the Earls of Seaforth and Dunmore, and General Skene at their head, and returned to their quarters at Leith. From the great number of the clan Macrae that were in the regiment, the mutiny was called “The affair of the Macraes.”
At Leith the regiment embarked with the greatest cheerfulness, accompanied by their colonel, the Earl of Seaforth. The intention of sending them to India being for the present abandoned, one half of the regiment was sent to Guernsey, and the other to Jersey. At the end of April 1781, however, both divisions assembled at Portsmouth, where, on the 12th of June, they embarked for the East Indies, being then 973 strong, rank and file. Though the men were all in excellent health, they suffered so severely from the effects of the voyage and the change of food, that before reaching Madras on the 2nd of April 1782, 247 of them had died of scurvy, and out of all that landed, only 369 were fit to carry arms. The death of Seaforth, their chief, who expired before the regiment reached St Helena, threw a damp over the spirits of the men, and it is said to have materially contributed to that prostration of mind which made them more readily the victims of disease.