Cape, in September the Scotch Brigade and the eighty-sixth regiment arrived, and in November the eighth light dragoons. The ninety-fifth regiment was drafted into the eighty-fourth and the eighty-sixth. There were thus in garrison nearly two hundred artillerymen, four strong regiments of infantry—the eighty-fourth, eighty-sixth, ninety-eighth,[1] and Scotch Brigade,—and two regiments of cavalry, the eighth and twenty-eighth light dragoons, in all nearly five thousand men.
The naval force on the station was also very strong, as the Dutch ships captured in Saldanha Bay had been put into commission as British men-of-war. The command which Admiral Elphinstone had held was divided into two, on his leaving for England in November 1796, the Indian station being assigned to Rear Admiral Peter Rainier and the Cape station to Rear Admiral Thomas Pringle, flying the red flag. With Admiral Pringle were left seven ships of the line, the Tremendous, Ruby, Stately, Dordrecht, Sceptre, Tromp, and Jupiter, three frigates, the Saldanha—previously the Castor,—the Braave, and the Crescent, and seven smaller vessels, the Vindictive—previously the Sirene,—the Sphinx, Rattlesnake, Echo, Princess, Euphrosyne, and the Hope, previously the Star. In addition to these, in November 1796, after Admiral Elphinstone 's departure, the frigate Imperieuse arrived from England for service on the Cape station, and in May 1797 the Trusty, a ship of fifty guns. This powerful fleet carried between four and five thousand men, and was used not only to protect the Cape, but to supply detachments to cruise off Mauritius, and to intercept vessels bound to Europe and
- ↑ This regiment, which was raised in 1794 as the ninety-eighth Argyllshire Highlanders, in October 1798 changed its number to the ninety-first. It remained in the colony during the whole period of the first British occupation. In July 1881 it changed its title once more, on this occasion to the first battalion Princess Louise's Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. It will be met with again in the course of South African history, and was always a favourite regiment with the people of this country.
