ted; and it will be most gratifying to Lieutenant-Colonel
Bourchier to bring the circumstance under the notice of H.R.H. the
General Commanding-in-Chief."

At the Gambia nothing of moment had occurred since 1807, with the
exception that a violent epidemic of fever broke out at Bathurst in
September, 1859, to which one officer and several men of the regiment
succumbed.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE BADDIBOO WAR, 1860-61.

The next active operations in which the 1st West India Regiment was
engaged, took place at the Gambia, where the King of Baddiboo, an
important Mohammedan state up the river, had in August and September,
1860, plundered the factories of several British traders, and afterwards
refused to pay compensation. The Governor of the Gambia, Colonel D'Arcy,
resolved to blockade the kingdom of Baddiboo, in the hope that the
enforced suspension of trade would compel the king to come to terms,
and, on October 10th, 1860, the gunners of the companies of the 1st West
India Regiment stationed at Bathurst embarked in the barque _Elm_ and
the schooner _Shamrock_, to close all the Baddiboo river ports. On
November 3rd additional gunners were sent in the schooner _Hope_, and
the blockade was strictly enforced, the natives not being allowed to
export any articles of produce or import anything.

While the blockade was still in force, the wing of the 2nd West India
Regiment, which had been wrecked in the troopship _Perseverance_ at
Maio, one of the Cape Verde Islands, while on its way to relieve the
wing of the 1st West India Regiment, arrived in West Africa in various
vessels, three companies at the Gambia and three at Sierra Leone; and as
in January, 1861, the blockade had manifestly failed in its object of
inducing the King of Baddiboo to indemnify the plundered merchants,
Governor D'Arcy determined to take advantage of the presence of an
unusual number of regular troops to organise a formidable expedition;
which step was rendered necessary from the fact that the numerous
Mohammedan tribes around the settlement and on the banks of the river
were narrowly watching events, and had, owing to the long delay in
punishing the King of Baddiboo, already commenced to show signs of
lawlessness.

On January 12th, 1861, the hired transport _Avon_ arrived at the Gambia
to convey the wing of the 1st West India Regiment to the West Indies,
and Colonel D'Arcy proceeded in her to Sierra Leone to make arrangements
for the services of