Leaving Surat, the regiment marched, in December, 1811, for its new cantonments at Ruttapore, near Kaira, in the northern division of Guzerat, where a commodious set of buildings had been erected on a beautiful site near the river, under the direction of Captain Goodfellow, of the Bombay Engineers, expressly for the use of the SEVENTEENTH. Around the regimental cantonments the officers erected very handsome and substantial houses of stone. [Sidenote: 1812] On the 1st of January, 1812, Colonel Evan Lloyd was promoted to the rank of Major-general, and the Honourable Lincoln Stanhope was appointed Lieut.-Colonel in the regiment, in addition to Lieut.-Colonel Wm. Carden, who was appointed in 1811. [Sidenote: 1813] The regiment had not occupied its new cantonments many months before it was visited by the epidemical fever frequently so destructive in the fruitful province of Guzerat, and it carried off many thousands of the natives, and numbers of Europeans. In the months of October, November, and December, 1812, and January, 1813, four officers and seventy-three men of the regiment died, chiefly of this disease. This was followed by an equally destructive famine in Guzerat, and the provinces to the westward, where no rain had fallen during the two preceding years. Vegetation had nearly ceased altogether; the rivers were reduced to mere rills, and the nearly exhausted springs allowed a very limited irrigation around the villages. Under this affliction, hundreds of the natives died daily, and Guzerat, which is celebrated as one of the richest provinces of the Mogul empire, abounding in rice, corn, sugar, fruits of various kinds, cattle, and game, presented a barren and woful spectacle. [Sidenote: 1814] [Sidenote: 1815]