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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1840 Fiji expedition | 1/13 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1840_Fiji_expedition | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T13:25:29.163462+00:00 | kb-cron |
The Fiji Expedition of 1840 was an exploring and surveying expedition, which itself was a part of the wider United States Exploring Expedition (a.k.a. the Wilkes expedition or the U.S. Ex. Ex.) that occurred from May 4 to August 11, 1840. It produced several scientific and cultural breakthroughs in realms such as cartography, oceanography, volcanology, anthropology, ethnography, ethnology, philology, linguistics, geology, taxonomy, trade, diplomacy, toponymy, epidemiology, pathology and Christian missionary work. It also was known for two separate punitive expeditions against separate groups of Fijians.
== Background == The Ex. Ex. under the command of Lieutenant Charles Wilkes had just discovered that Antarctica was a continent, and finished surveying Wilkes Land. However, Wilkes was facing a significant deadline. Wilkes was originally given a deadline of 3 years to conduct the necessary research for all the allotted study location goals for the expedition. Unfortunately for him he only had two months to conduct the studies for Fiji expedition, then he would immediately have to journey to the Columbia river expeditions to finish the rest of the studies for the rest of the year. If Wilkes did not, the sailors' and marines' enlistment service would expire, and the expedition's future would have been put in jeopardy. This situation put Wilkes under immense pressure. As it was, besides the Columbia river expedition, the Fiji expedition was considered the most paramount research destination for several reasons. New England merchants and whalers frequented Fiji for its whale and sandalwood, and competed with the British and the French for the bêche-de-mer populations to sell in China. However, Fiji possessed many uncharted reefs, rocks, and currents, with a culture well known for its cannibalism (in fact for a while Fiji was also known as the Cannibal Isles) and a noted penchant for dragging boats to shore and killing all on board. No dependable navigation charts existed, and in the 12 years prior to 1840, 8 ships (5 of them being American) had been destroyed in the area. These conditions made travel to and around these Islands so precarious, the East India Marine Society of Salem, Massachusetts, United States had petitioned the federal government for local charts for sailors navigating these waters. Although surveying was the primary reason for the Ex. Ex. in general, the Ex. Ex. also brought along a group of scientists which were also deployed for the Fiji expedition.
Now that the Antarctic discoveries were finished, Wilkes' fleet traveled to Sydney, Australia, then to the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, and finally they rendezvoused at Tongatapu, in Tonga, and prepared for their next mission in Fiji. Wilkes had already had his four ships refitted at Sydney. His current fleet at the time of the Fiji expedition consisted of Wilkes' flagship the USS Vincennes (sloop-of-war, 780 tons, 18 guns), the USS Peacock (sloop-of-war, 650 tons, 22 guns), the USS Porpoise (brig, 230 tons, 10 guns), and the USS Flying Fish (schooner, 96 tons, 2 guns). Furthermore, Wilkes had at least a dozen gigs, cutters, and whaleboats prepared for travel against the hazardous reefs. Each of the vessels were given surveying equipment and a supply of forward mounted blunderbusses, and a number of them were furnished with congreve rocket artillery frames.Wilkes believed he was going to lose at least two ships and his officers wrote their wills to their loved ones for fear at the prospect of being shipwrecked or cannibalized.
== Beginning of the expedition == Wilkes' fleet set sail out of Nukuʻalofa on May 4, 1840. He dispatched the Porpoise under Lieutenant Cadwalader Ringgold to the Lau Group of the Fiji Islands, while the rest of the fleet went to the Koro Sea. The 3 ships headed for the Island of Ovalau, but by the morning of May 7, the Flying Fish under the command of Lieutenant George Sinclair went missing, after it got caught on a reef. Wilkes pressed on with the Peacock and the Vincennes and anchored by the village Levuka. Upon Wilkes arrival, a white shipwrecked survivor of the Oneo a Nantucket man named David Whippey and one of his sons paddled up to the Vincennes. Whippey was what was called a beachcomber, which in this context meant a "tame white man" to the Fijians. This was a sort of mercenary, military advisor, and translator. The earliest beachcomber Charlie Savage and those like him taught Fijians how to use fire arms. This revolutionized Fijian warfare, and they were greatly valued by war chiefs, who rewarded them with riches and women. Whippey had risen to the title of "Mata-ki-Bau" (the Royal Messenger of Bau village.