The undetermined extent of the British territory in North America gave rise to hostilities with France in 1755, and the establishment of the army was considerably augmented in that and the two following years. Several expeditions were also fitted out; but the SIXTEENTH regiment was detained on home service in Ireland. In 1760 a plan was formed for attacking the French island of Belleisle, and the SIXTEENTH, mustering seven hundred men, under Lieut.-Colonel Gabbet, embarked on board of the fleet; but the enterprise was laid aside in consequence of the death of King George II., and the regiment returned to Ireland. [Sidenote: 1762] On the termination of the war in 1762, the regiment was again reduced to the peace establishment. [Sidenote: 1763] General Roger Handasyd died in January, 1763, and in June King George III. conferred the colonelcy of the regiment on the Honorable Robert Brudenell, third son of George Earl of Cardigan, from captain and lieut.-colonel in the third foot guards. [Sidenote: 1765] In 1765 Colonel Brudenell was removed to the Fourth regiment of foot, and was succeeded in the colonelcy of the SIXTEENTH, by Colonel William Draper, who had commanded one of the regiments raised in 1757, and numbered the Seventy-ninth regiment, which was disbanded in 1763. [Sidenote: 1766] Colonel Draper was honoured with the dignity of a Knight of the Bath, and in 1766 he exchanged to the colonelcy of one of the corps disbanded in 1763 (the 121st regiment) with Colonel James Gisborne, who was performing the duty of Quartermaster-General in Ireland. [Sidenote: 1767] The regiment embarked from Ireland in 1767, for North America, and was stationed in the pleasant and fertile territory of Florida, which had been ceded to Great Britain, by the Spaniards, in 1763, in exchange for the Havannah. [Sidenote: 1768] The head-quarters were established at Pensacola,--a town of West Florida, situate at the head of a delightful bay, or basin, in the Gulf of Mexico; and the regiment furnished various detachments to occupy military stations in East and West Florida. [Sidenote: 1775] [Sidenote: 1776] [Sidenote: 1777] In these pleasant and healthy quarters the regiment was stationed when a number of the British colonies in North America revolted, and declared themselves a free and independent people, under the title of the United States. This occurred in 1775, and in the following year the SIXTEENTH were withdrawn from Florida, to join the army at New York, under Lieut.-General Sir William Howe; but the necessity of having a small force in the ceded Spanish province was evident, and the SIXTEENTH having, during their residence of eight years in East and West Florida, acquired the confidence of the inhabitants and a knowledge of the country, and of the habits and language of the people, the regiment received orders to return to Pensacola, and other stations in East and West Florida, and on the confines of Georgia. [Sidenote: 1778]