Talk:Fiji expeditions

These are not the 1st and 2nd Fiji Expeditions (We should change the titles)

The First American Fiji punitive Expedition was in 1840 during the United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842 a.k.a. the Wilkes expedition.

In the Wiki article for the expedition it reads.

" In July 1840, two members of the party, Lieutenant Underwood and Wilkes' nephew, Midshipman Wilkes Henry, were killed while bartering for food in western Fiji's Malolo Island. The cause of this event remains equivocal. Immediately prior to their deaths, the son of the local chief, who was being held as a hostage by the Americans, escaped by jumping out of the boat and running through the shallow water for shore. The Americans fired over his head. According to members of the expedition party on the boat, his escape was intended as a prearranged signal by the Fijians to attack. According to those on shore, the shooting actually precipitated the attack on the ground. The Americans landed sixty sailors to attack the hostile natives. Close to eighty Fijians were killed in the resulting American reprisal and two villages were burned to the ground."

This is a very brief summary, but it gets the basics down.

I propose we change the title of the current 1st expedition to the Second Fiji expedition to the and the current 2nd expedition to the 3rd Fiji expedition.

If we want to wait till the 1840 expedition is made fine. I will write it myself soon I already have the books "180 landings of the us marine corps" and "Sea of Glory" by Nathaniel Philbrick to begin the research. I am working on another project at the moment, but I will get to this soon. Historyguy1138 (talk) 00:07, 7 October 2024 (UTC)