On the return of the troops from the Helder, in November, 1799, Captain Torrens was promoted to a Majority in the Surrey Rangers, which he joined and commanded in Nova Scotia. In 1801 he came back to England, and exchanged, on the 4th of February, 1802, to the Eighty-sixth Regiment, then serving in Egypt, to which country it had come from India with a division of troops, under the command of Major-General Sir David Baird. Major Torrens lost no time in embarking for the Mediterranean: on his arrival at Alexandria, he found that the object of the expedition had completely succeeded, although attended with the melancholy loss of his revered commander and steady friend, Sir Ralph Abercrombie, who had been mortally wounded at the battle of Alexandria. As the expulsion of the French rendered the presence of a large force no longer necessary in Egypt, the auxiliary troops from India returned across the desert, and embarking at Cosseir, proceeded to Bombay. Soon after the arrival of the troops from Egypt, hostilities broke out between the English and the Mahrattas: in this contest Major Torrens again evinced his natural courage and talents, and obtained the approbation of the officers under whom he served: his health giving way to the active exertions he had made in the execution of his duty, and suffering under the effects of a _coup de soleil_, he was compelled to have recourse to a change of climate, and accordingly obtained leave to return to England. On arrival at St. Helena, he found his state of health so far improved as to induce him to forego his return to England, and to go back to his regiment. While at St. Helena, he formed an attachment to the daughter of Governor Patton, and was married. On his return to India, he served under General Lord Lake, until the conquest of Scindiah, the most formidable of the Mahratta Chiefs. On the 1st of January, 1805, he was promoted to the brevet rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and in the same year he returned to Europe: after his arrival in England, he was employed as Assistant Adjutant-General in the Kent District. He exchanged from the Eighty-sixth to the Eighty-ninth Regiment on the 19th of February, 1807, and in the same year he proceeded as Military Secretary to Lieutenant-General Whitelocke, with the expedition against the Spanish colonies on the Rio de la Plata, and was present at the disastrous attack upon Buenos Ayres on the 5th of July, 1807.