Page:Historical Record of the Fifty-Sixth, Or the West Essex Regiment of Foot.djvu/40

30 stationed a short time at the barracks at Forton and Gosport; in August it proceeded to the Isle of Wight, where a pair of colours was presented to it on the 28th of November. Its establishment was augmented in December to eight hundred and sixty-six non-commissioned officers and soldiers.

From the Isle of Wight the second battalion proceeded to Guernsey, in March, 1806, and its establishment was fixed at a thousand rank and file.

After remaining at Guernsey twelve months, the second battalion returned to the Isle of Wight: it was in a high state of discipline and efficiency, and in June it embarked in two divisions for India. The fleet encountered a severe gale of wind, and the vessels of the first division parted company, and put into Simon’s Bay to refit. They remained at the Cape of Good Hope a month, and afterwards continued the voyage to Madras, where they arrived in December, under convoy of the Greyhound frigate. On arrival in India the several companies proceeded to Bombay, where both battalions were stationed in 1808: the success which attended the recruiting of the regiment, occasioning the establishment of the first battalion to be augmented to thirteen hundred non-commissioned officers and soldiers.

In January, 1809, the second battalion marched to Barachie, near Surat.

Meanwhile British commerce had experienced considerable interruption and some loss from the French naval force stationed in the Indian Sea, which force rendezvoused at the Island of Bourbon, and the Isle of France (or the Mauritius). In January two hundred men of the first battalion were detached from Bombay, to join the troops assembling at the Island of Roderigue, under Lieut.-Colonel Keating, of the Regiment, for the attack of the French islands in the Indian Sea.