Orders for the return of the regiment to England were issued in 1816, but countermanded in consequence of the hostile conduct of the Pindarees: they were repeated in April, 1818, when the regiment commenced its march for Madras, and when within one stage of that place, the route was changed to Wallaghabad. Previous to embarking the regiment was inspected by Major-General Brown, commanding the centre division, who expressed in orders,--“To Colonel Hastings Fraser, his greatest approbation of the good conduct and discipline of the regiment since it had been under his command in the centre division, in the attainment of which he had been so ably supported by the officers of the corps.” While the regiment was waiting to embark, the “Orlando” frigate arrived at Madras, from _Ceylon_, with an application from the governor, General Sir Robert Brownrigg, for immediate aid to suppress the hostile aggressions of the Kandians inhabiting the interior of the island; the mortality among the European troops, employed in the interior, being so great, as to render further aid indispensable. The flank companies of the EIGHTY-SIXTH were completed to one hundred rank and file each, and embarked on board the frigate to proceed on this service[10]; they landed at Trincomalee on the 12th of September, and made preparations for penetrating the interior, during which time Major Marston was taken ill. From Trincomalee the flank companies of the EIGHTY-SIXTH sailed, on the 18th of September, under Captain M. Creagh, and landing on the 21st, encamped near the fort of Batticoloe, where the sick men of the Nineteenth and Seventy-third Regiments, sent from the interior, were dying fast; a hundred had been buried close to the tents of the EIGHTY-SIXTH, and several deaths occurred daily. On the 25th of September, the flank companies of the regiment again embarked in open boats, and proceeding during the night up the lake, landed on the following day at Mandoor, from whence they marched through thick jungle, thirteen miles up a gradual ascent, exposed to heavy rain, to the Mangalar river. On the 29th they traversed twelve miles of uncultivated ground, fording several streams, to the post of Chinna Kandy, commanded by Lieutenant Robinson, of the Nineteenth Regiment, whose detachment was suffering severely from ague and fever. Fifteen miles of rugged country, covered with underwood destitute of roads, and infested with wild elephants, were traversed on the 1st of October, to the post of Kataboa, commanded by Captain Ritchie, of the Seventy-third Regiment, who had buried nearly a hundred men of his detachment at this place, and of the seventy Europeans left alive, the captain and assistant surgeon were the only persons free from fever. At this place the EIGHTY-SIXTH were joined by seventy rank and file of the Ceylon corps, under Lieutenant Noonan, who was to act as interpreter and guide.