[2] In 1781, on the formation of the Bengal Sepoy Corps, Warren Hastings resolved on sending a detachment of five regiments to the relief of the presidency of Fort St. George.

Having reached the vicinity of Madras about the middle of 1781, the Bengal troops joined the other forces in the field, under the commander-in-chief, Sir Eyre Coote.

[2] During the arduous warfare in which they were engaged from that period down to the cessation of hostilities before Cuddalore in June 1783, the Bengal corps, under Pearse, established for themselves a lasting reputation.

The attack on the French lines at Cuddalore was one of the first occasions on which European troops and the disciplined natives of India had met at the point of the bayonet.

In May 1785 Pearse contributed a paper on Two Hindu Festivals and the Indian Sphinx to the proceedings of the Asiatic Society at Calcutta, which was subsequently published in Dissertations and Miscellaneous Pieces relating to the History and Antiquities … of Asia, by Sir W. Jones … and others.