In April, 1869, in consequence of the difficulty experienced by the Colonial Government in arresting certain rebellious chiefs at the Amissah River, about twenty miles to the east of Cape Coast Castle, the police having been attacked and driven off, the Acting Administrator, Mr. W.H. Simpson, applied for a military party to aid in establishing the authority of the Government over the people of that place; and, on the 7th of that month, Lieutenant E.G. Macdonald, 1st West India Regiment, with twenty-five non-commissioned officers and men of letter E Company, marched for Anamaboe, leaving that place next morning for Amissah River. On arriving there the chiefs were captured with some little difficulty, and the party returned to Cape Coast next day. On the 1st of April, 1869, the 4th West India Regiment was disbanded, and the three remaining West India regiments were each augmented by one company; the detachment of the 4th West India Regiment at Jamaica being formed into the ninth, or letter "I," Company of the 1st West India Regiment. On the 30th of September, 1869, it embarked for Honduras in the brigantine _W.N.Z._, under Major McAuley, arriving at its destination on the 14th of October. In May, 1869, the Gambia was visited by a severe epidemic of cholera. Owing to the sanitary measures adopted by Major W.W.W. Johnston, 1st West India Regiment, commanding the troops, the regiment escaped with only eighteen deaths out of the 200 men there stationed between the 5th of May and the 6th of June, the period when the epidemic was at its height; while in the town there were more than 1500 deaths, out of a population of some 5000.