"SIR,--I beg you, and the officers and soldiers of the FIFTY-THIRD regiment, under your command, will accept of my best thanks for the zeal, activity, and humanity which have been testified by you and them, on all occasions, while under my command, during the brigand and Caribbee war in the island of St. Vincent. I am also requested by the Council and Assembly of the island to communicate, not only to the officers and soldiers now serving in St. Vincent, but to all those whom I have had the honor to command since my arrival here, the sentiments that the Assembly and inhabitants of this colony entertain of the good conduct and behaviour of the troops, and to offer their warmest, most grateful, and unfeigned thanks for the eminent services the army has rendered this island." Major-General Lake having been removed to the seventy-third regiment, he was succeeded in the colonelcy of the FIFTY-THIRD by Major-General Welbore Ellis Doyle, by commission dated the 2nd of November, 1796. [Sidenote: 1797] Spain having united with France in hostility to Great Britain, the FIFTY-THIRD were employed in an expedition against the Spanish settlement of _Trinidad_, which was captured in February, 1797, without loss. The army subsequently proceeded against _Porto Rico_, and a landing was effected on the 18th of April; but the expedition proved of insufficient strength for the capture of this place, and the troops re-embarked on the night of the 30th of April. The FIFTY-THIRD had three rank and file killed; Captain John Rhind and three men wounded; Captain Samuel Dover taken prisoner. The regiment returned to St. Vincent. [Sidenote: 1798] On the death of Major-General Doyle, the colonelcy was conferred on Lieut.-General Charles Crosbie, from the late Royal Dublin regiment, his commission bearing date the 3rd of January, 1798. [Sidenote: 1799] [Sidenote: 1800] After remaining at St. Vincent during the years 1798 and 1799, the regiment was removed to St. Lucia in 1800. [Sidenote: 1802] At the peace of Amiens, in 1802, the island of St. Lucia was restored to France, when the regiment returned to England, much reduced in numbers by the climate of the West Indies. [Sidenote: 1803] On the arrival of the regiment in England, the men enlisted for limited service were discharged at Hilsea barracks, and in January, 1803, it marched, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Lightburne, for Shrewsbury. [Sidenote: 1805]