India Regiment, having
embarked at Jamaica on February 21st, 1848. They arrived at Sierra Leone
in April, and No. 5 Company being there landed to relieve No. 4, No. 2
proceeded to Cape Coast Castle to relieve No. 7. The two relieved
companies rejoined the head-quarters at Jamaica on July 2nd, 1848. No. 8
Company having been sent to Nassau in February, and the light company in
July, while No. 1 had been despatched to Honduras in May, the
distribution of the regiment in August, 1848, was as follows: 2
companies in West Africa, 2 at Nassau, 1 in Honduras, and 5 in Jamaica.

No. 1 Company had been sent to Honduras in reply to an urgent appeal for
a reinforcement from the Honduras Government, that colony being
threatened with the horrors of an Indian war. In 1847 a war broke out
between the Yucatecans and the Indians, and caused much anxiety to the
British colony, whose strict neutrality satisfied neither of the
contending parties. The Yucatecans, being driven out of the southern
portion of Yucatan, took refuge in our territory, and raids and
reprisals were frequent between them and the Santa Cruz Indians. In 1848
the town of Bacalar, situated on the shores of a lake, about twenty
miles from the northern frontier of British Honduras, was captured by
the Indians, and the fugitives, streaming into the colony, spread alarm
amongst the colonists. It was at this time that reinforcements were
applied for, and No. 1 Company, under Major Luke Smyth O'Connor,
despatched from Jamaica.

On arriving at Belize the company was at once moved up to the Hondo, and
towards the end of May a portion of it proceeded on escort duty with a
British commissioner to Bacalar to endeavour to arrange a peace. That
town had been the scene of the most frightful atrocities, and the
streets were found strewn with the dead bodies of men, women, and
children. Negotiations failing, the escort returned to the Hondo.

Collisions now became frequent between the Yucatecans and the Indians,
and our northern border became a rallying point for both sides. The
small British force was continually harassed by alarms and forced
marches taken to prevent violation of British territory, until towards
the close of 1848, it being rumoured that the Indians intended to cross
the Hondo and sack Belize, it was withdrawn from the north for the
protection of that town. Additional reinforcements were now asked for,
and on March 29th, 1849, No. 4 Company, under Captain Meehan, emba