A sister regiment to the Seventy-first, the Seventy-second (Seventy-eighth) was ordered to follow it to India in 1781, in fulfilment of the original purpose for which both corps had been raised. The transport service of those times was miserably inefficient, especially when compared with the leviathan ships and floating palaces—the Scotias, Persias, and Great Easterns—which in our day are, by a patriotic public, ever at the command of our Government for any sudden emergency. A voyage in a troop-ship eighty years ago ofttimes consumed more of life than the battle-field; was more fatal than the dreaded pestilence which lurked in the swamps of the Indies; nay, in some cases was as cruel in its miseries as the horrors of the Black Hole of Calcutta. The passage of the Seventy-second Highlanders to India proved to be such. Two hundred and forty-seven men perished on the voyage, which was protracted to nearly ten months; and when the regiment did arrive at Madras, only 369 men were mustered as fit for duty. One transport having parted from the fleet in a gale, was placed in imminent peril, being destitute of charts, and her commander utterly unfit for his position, having hitherto trusted to keep his vessel in the track of the fleet. By the wise precautions of Sir Eyre Coote, although the requirements of the service were urgent and entailed an immediate advance, the Seventy-second regiment was not immediately hurried into action, but time was allowed it to recruit its strength. In consequence of these measures, the regiment was soon able to appear in the field with upwards of 600 men. Hyder Ali, who, by usurpation, had arisen from being a mere soldier of fortune to be the dreaded tyrant of the Mysore, allied with France and Holland, threatened to expel the British from the Indian continent. “’Tis true that we are in great danger, The greater, therefore, should our courage be.”