Returning to England, the regiment was once more included in the long-contemplated West Indian expedition. A vast armament had been assembled in 1795, and sailed at first prosperously, only to be dispersed and driven back with heavy loss by a furious tempest which almost immediately arose. A second attempt, promising as favourably, encountered a like catastrophe, but not so fatal. Although dispersed, some of the transports continued the voyage, others returned to port, and some few became the prey of the enemy’s privateers. Providence seemed to be adverse to the expedition, or in friendly warning indicated the coming struggle—when hearths and homes, menaced by a relentless, dangerous foe, needed that a large portion of this ill-omened expedition should be retained for the defence of our own shores, and play a more important part in the exciting events of the Revolutionary War. Five companies of the Royal Highlanders were thus detained at home, and soon afterwards removed for service to Gibraltar. The other five companies of the regiment, embarked in the “Middlesex,” East Indiaman, battling the tempest, completed the voyage, and rendezvoused at Barbadoes, whence they proceeded, with what remained of the vast armament, against the French island of St Lucia, which, after some sharp fighting, was wrested from the Republicans. In the subsequent attack upon the island of St Vincent, the Highlanders were praised for the “heroic ardour” they always displayed, but especially illustrated in the attack upon the post of New Vigie, on the 10th June, 1796, on which occasion Major-General David Stewart relates the following episode of the wife of a soldier of our Royal Highlanders:—“I directed her husband, who was in my company, to remain behind in charge of the men’s knapsacks, which they had thrown off to be light for the advance up the hill. He obeyed his orders; but his wife, believing, I suppose, that she was not included in these injunctions, pushed forward in the assault. When the enemy had been driven from the third redoubt, I was standing giving some directions to the men, and preparing to push on to the fourth and last redoubt, when I found myself tapped on the shoulder, and turning round, I saw my Amazonian friend standing with her clothes tucked up to the knees, and seizing my arm, ‘Well done, my Highland lads!’ she exclaimed, ‘see how the brigands scamper like so many deer!’ ‘Come,’ added she, ‘let us drive them from yonder hill.’ On inquiry, I found she had been in the hottest fire, cheering and animating the men, and when the action was over, she was as active as any of the surgeons in assisting the wounded.”