"Having had the honour to receive and submit to the Field-Marshal Commanding-in-Chief, your letter of the 23rd September last, with its several enclosures, containing a detailed account of the exemplary and gallant conduct of a detachment of the 1st West India Regiment, in repelling an attack of Indians on the Orange Walk outpost of the Colony of British Honduras, together with a letter on the same subject addressed to this department by the officer commanding the 1st West India Regiment: "I have it in command to acquaint you that His Royal Highness, after consultation with the Secretary of State for War on the subject, has decided that the following recognition shall be at once made of the services of the officers and men employed on that occasion, viz.: "That Lieutenant Smith, late 1st West India Regiment, who was gazetted to the 57th Regiment in August last, shall be immediately promoted to a Company in the 97th Foot. "That Staff-Assistant-Surgeon Edge shall be promoted to the rank of Surgeon, as soon as he has qualified for the higher position, and a notification to this effect will be published in the London Gazette, hereafter. "That Sergeant Edward Belizario shall receive the distinguished conduct medal, with an annuity of L10, to be given at once, in excess of the vote, until absorbed on the occurrence of a vacancy. "That Lance-Corporals Spencer and Stirling shall be granted the distinguished conduct medal without annuity, and promoted to the rank of Corporal, to be borne supernumerary till absorbed. "I am also to request that the men of the detachment specially named in the margin[62] may be commended for their good conduct, and the commanding officer of the regiment requested to record their claims, and give such recognition of them regimentally as may be possible from time to time. "That you will publish these, His Royal Highness's decisions, in your general orders. "And that a copy of this letter may be furnished to the officer commanding the 1st West India Regiment, for the purpose of being entered in the Regimental Records. "I have, etc., (Signed) J.W. ARMSTRONG, D.A.G." In consequence of the attack on Orange Walk, and on the application of the Governor of Honduras, Captain Gardner, Lieutenant Bale, and fifty men of the regiment, embarked at Jamaica, on the 25th of September, in H.M.S. _Fly_, as a reinforcement for Honduras. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 61: See Map.] [Footnote 62: Privates Hoffer, Maxwell, S. Osborne, Murray, R.A. Morris, and W. Tell.] CHAPTER XXIX. THE ASHANTI WAR, 1873-4.