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 attacked Gillespie, who, however, defended himself with his sword, and killed six of his assailants, when the two others, after firing at and wounding him, fled. The report brought the patrol to the spot. News of his assassination reached Europe, and appears to have hastened his mother's death. When Gillespie attended a levée long after, George III at first expressed surprise at Gillespie's boyish appearance. ‘Eh, eh, what, what,’ said the king, looking at his diminutive stature, ‘is this the little man that killed the brigands?’ Returning to Jamaica, Gillespie assumed command of his regiment, and in 1799 was recommended by the lieutenant-general and house of assembly for the rank of lieutenant-colonel. At the peace of Amiens the 20th light dragoons were transferred from Jamaica to the English establishment, and Gillespie returned home in command, when the house of assembly ordered the receiver-general to pay over to him one hundred guineas, ‘to be by him expended in the purchase of a sword, as testimony of the high esteem in which he is held by this house’ (Jamaica, Journals of the House of Assembly, 9 Dec. 1801).

Soon after his arrival in England insinuations of signing false returns were made against Gillespie by a Major Allen Cameron, of the 20th dragoons, who had been tried in Jamaica for mutiny and sedition. Gillespie applied for enquiry by a court-martial. After two years' delay he was tried at Colchester on 29 June 1804 by a general court-martial, of which the Hon. John Hope was president, and Lord Paget, afterwards Marquis of Anglesey, Hussey Vivian, and others were members. He was fully acquitted. His accuser was removed from the service. Gillespie's pecuniary means became sorely embarrassed by his open-handedness and misplaced trust, and he was compelled to exchange to India. He joined the 19th light dragoons, of which Sir Robert Wilson had just become lieutenant-colonel. Gillespie, intending to travel overland, proceeded to Hamburg, where he was warned as a countryman by Napper Tandy that he was in danger from French spies. He escaped in disguise to Altona, and afterwards travelled by Vienna and the Danube to Greece, whence he made his way by Aleppo and Bagdad to India. He was appointed commandant of Arcot, where the 19th light dragoons were stationed, and had not been there many days when, riding before breakfast on 10 July 1806, he was met by an officer who reported a mutiny at Vellore. Vellore was fourteen miles distant, and the retreat of the captive princes of Tippoo's family. Starting at once with a squadron of the 19th and some native cavalry, and directing the rest of the dragoons with their ‘galloper’ guns to follow, Gillespie hurried to Vellore, to find that the sepoy troops had massacred the Europeans, and that the survivors of the 69th foot had spent their ammunition, and were making their last stand. With the aid of a rope Gillespie had himself hoisted into the fort, where he rallied and encouraged the 69th until the arrival of the guns from Arcot, when the gates were blown open, and the dragoons entering cut down over eight hundred of the mutineers. Gillespie's resourceful heroism at Vellore proved of immense importance to British prestige in India. After removing the captive princes to Madras, Gillespie was employed at Wallajabad and other stations where symptoms of disaffection appeared. When the 19th dragoons were ordered home, in April 1807, he exchanged to the 8th royal Irish light dragoons (now hussars). He commanded early in 1809 the cavalry and horse artillery against the Sikhs under Runjeet Singh, until Sir Charles Metcalfe ended the dispute in April. In Jan. 1809 Gillespie effected a transfer to the 25th (formerly 29th) light dragoons, when the non-commissioned officers and men of the 8th presented him with a costly sword, ‘the gift of the Royal Irish,’ and the officers solicited his restoration to the regiment. Gillespie was subsequently commandant of Bangalore, and afterwards commanded the Mysore division of the Madras army.

In 1811 Gillespie, with the rank of brigadier-general, commanded the advance of Sir Samuel Auchmuty's force in the expedition against Java, which landed near Batavia and took possession of that city. Although suffering from fever, he directed the principal attack on the Dutch lines at Cornelis the day after, and to his gallantry, energy, and prompt judgment in the execution of that service, Auchmuty attributed the successful issue. After the reduction of the island Auchmuty left Stamford Raffles as civil governor, and gave Gillespie command of the troops. The sultan of Palembang, in the island of Sumatra, which had been tributary to the Dutch in Java, having murdered the Europeans there, Gillespie was despatched from Batavia in March 1812. He deposed the sultan in a most summary manner, placed the sultan's brother on the throne, secured the cession of the island of Banca to the British, and returned to Java. Finding a confederacy of Javanese chiefs had taken up a position at D'joejocarta (Yodhyakarta), a powerful stockaded fort defended by one hundred guns and thirty thousand men, Gillespie promptly attacked and carried it with fifteen hundred troops, thereby, in all probability, saving the lives of all the