Towards the end of January, the first battalion embarked for the island of Jamaica, where it arrived in May. [Sidenote: 1807] In 1807 the second battalion proceeded to the West Indies, and was stationed at the island of Curaçao. [Sidenote: 1808] [Sidenote: 1809] The ROYAL IRISH regiment being employed in guarding the colonial possessions of Great Britain, its services were valuable to the Crown and to the kingdom, and the exemplary conduct of both battalions was commended by the general officers under whom the regiment served; but the performance of this duty precluded the EIGHTEENTH sharing in the brilliant campaigns of the British army in the Peninsula, where several corps acquired numerous honorary inscriptions for their regimental colours. The first battalion sailed from Jamaica on the 7th of June, 1809, with the troops under Major-General Sir Hugh Lyle Carmichael, to aid the Spaniards in their attempt to reduce the city of _St. Domingo_. The British troops landed about thirty miles from the place, and, advancing to the besieged fortress, found the Spanish army greatly reduced by sickness. Prompt measures were adopted for an attack on the place by storm by the British troops, and the EIGHTEENTH were under arms to take part in this service, when hostilities were suddenly terminated by the surrender of the French garrison. After the deliverance of the city of St. Domingo from the power of France, the ROYAL IRISH returned to Jamaica. [Sidenote: 1810] Very severe losses having been sustained by the second battalion from the climate of the West Indies, it was directed to transfer its men fit for service to the first battalion, and embark for England to recruit. It arrived at Ottery barracks, in Devonshire, in October 1810, and was joined by the regimental depôt, amounting to upwards of five hundred men. [Sidenote: 1811] In the spring of 1811 the second battalion proceeded to the island of Jersey. On the decease of General Sir James Pulteney, Bart., His Royal Highness the Prince Regent conferred the colonelcy of the ROYAL IRISH regiment on Lieut.-General John Lord Hutchinson, K.B., afterwards Earl of Donoughmore, from the fifty-seventh regiment, by commission dated the 27th of April, 1811. [Sidenote: 1814] The second battalion was employed on garrison duty in the island of Jersey until the power of Napoleon Bonaparte was overthrown by the armies of the allies, and the Bourbon family was restored to the throne of France, which was accompanied by the restoration of peace to Europe. A reduction was, in consequence, made in the strength of the British army, and the second battalion of the ROYAL IRISH regiment was disbanded at Jersey on the 24th of October 1814, transferring its non-commissioned officers and private soldiers fit for duty to the first battalion. [Sidenote: 1817]