After being embodied at Elgin, the first battalion remained there some weeks, and then marched to Fort George, where it was formed into ten companies. It embarked on the 8th of May, 1,100 strong, under Lord McLeod, for Portsmouth, where it was to be transhipped and accompany the East India Fleet. The passage, however, having occupied fifteen days, the fleet sailed before the arrival of the transports, which were then ordered to proceed to Guernsey and Jersey. Here the battalion disembarked, and remained until relieved by the Seventy-eighth Regiment on the 27th November. Embarking on board the transports which brought the latter, it was conveyed to Portsmouth, where it disembarked on the 10th December and marched to Petersfield, where it was quartered until the close of the year. Orders having been received for its embarkation for the East Indies, a mutiny occurred in one of the companies, owing to a rumour gaining ground that the men had been sold to the East India Company by the British Government. This was happily checked, by the prompt and resolute spirit displayed by the officers, and the assurance of their Colonel that this report was entirely groundless. In January the battalion, about 1,100 strong, embarked on board Indiamen, under the command of Colonel Lord McLeod. Three vessels formed part of a fleet, escorted by Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes, which in its passage touched at Goree, on the Coast of Africa, and captured that settlement from the French. After leaving Goree the fleet proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope, at that time in possession of the Dutch, where it landed its sick. It remained there three months, anchored in Table Bay, and then continued its course to India. The voyage, though tedious, was on the whole prosperous, and was brought to a close by anchor being dropped in Madras Roads on the 20th January, 1780, just twelve months subsequent to embarkation. The battalion was landed without delay at Fort St. George, where it remained about a month in barracks, after which it was removed to Poonamallee. [Sidenote: 2nd bat.] [Sidenote: 1778.] [Sidenote: 1780.]