"In the year 1781 French authorities helped to raise a new regiment in the Swiss canton, soliciting recruits in and around Neuchatel. The regiment was called the deMeuron Regiment, taking it's name from the commander, Comte Charles de Meuron, born in Neuchatel in1738 and who served in the French regiment D'Erlach. The DeMeuron Regiment consisted of 1020 men, 10 companies of 102 men each, fully armed and equipped.
This regiment was to serve the Dutch East India Company protecting the Dutch colonies, the Cape of Good Hope in particular. A Dutch base was established there in 1652, to act as a supply depot for the provisioning of ships on the long voyage from Europe to India. By the 1700's, Dutch settlers, the Boers, were well established there.
On January 7, 1782, the regiment landed in Capetown, only to re-embark shortly on the Hermione to Ceylon where they were to reinforce the Suffrens. Ceylon had been under Dutch rule since 1665, yet in the latter part of the 18th century, the British began to move eastward from India. In Ceylon, the DeMeuron Regiment took part in the expulsion of the British from Cuddalore, which was "sorely beset by the English under General Stuart."…"
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