American Tactical victory American Strategic Defeat East Coast Great Lakes / Saint Lawrence River West Indies / Gulf Coast Pacific Ocean The Nuku Hiva Campaign was an armed conflict between the United States and the Polynesian inhabitants of Nuku Hiva during the War of 1812.

It occurred in 1813, following Captain David Porter's decision to sail his fleet to the island for repairs before continuing his raid against British shipping.

Upon arrival, the Americans became involved in a tribal war and allied themselves with the Te I'i people against the Happah and Tai Pi clans.

By October 1813, Essex was in serious need of repairs so Porter decided to head for Nuku Hiva, an island in the Marquesas, fearing that a British squadron would find him if he chose to take refuge in a South American port.

In total, Captain Porter had just over 200 United States Navy officers and sailors, accompanied by a small detachment of no more than twenty marines under the command of Lieutenant John M. Gamble.

Then Porter began making preparations to establish the first American naval base in the Pacific, as well as a small colony, named Madisonville, to house the sailors.

The small Fort Madison, of four guns, was also constructed on a hill next to Massachusetts Bay where an official flag raising ceremony took place on November 19, a seventeen gun salute was fired and some sort of message was buried in the ground for future Europeans to find, should they attempt to colonize the island after Porter and his men left.

In this time the sailors also scraped the copper bottom hull of Essex and used smoke to drive out over 1,000 rats hiding in her works.

They wore loin cloths and some had capes made of tree bark; the warriors also carried large clubs or spears.

[4] Nuku Hiva, at the time, was inhabited by many tribes of indigenous peoples, separated in villages by mountain peaks thousands of feet high.

[citation needed] The assault on the fort was successful and Downes reported that his men had killed five enemies and that the Te I'i massacred the wounded with clubs.

It was unopposed but Captain Porter's fleet, combined with around 5,000 friendly warriors, in at least 200 war-canoes, attacked the Tai Pi-held coastline.

The Te I'is and Happahs provided the brunt of the attack while the Americans picked off enemy warriors with their muskets; the cannon was aimed at the fortifications.

Lt. Gamble and four men were given permission to run back to the beach for a resupply but upon their arrival the situation with their natives allies had deteriorated.

[citation needed] Thousands of Tai Pis occupied the heavily defended position and they managed to repel the native attacks.

[6] Once word spread that Porter and his allies had been defeated, the Te I'i and the Happah warriors began to turn on the Americans which led them to fear that Madisonville would be overrun and the inhabitants massacred.

Porter organized and led most of his men on a second mission into enemy territory, this time overland to Typee Valley and with limited assistance from the Te I'i.

The sailors were not happy about leaving their Marquesan girlfriends and Porter had to suppress one mutiny by declaring that he "would at once put a match to the magazine, and blow them all to eternity."

A former Royal Navy sailor by the name of Robert White, was brought before Porter, having been accused of mutinous talk about Essex Junior.

[10] He and seven men (four unfit for duty) then sailed Sir Andrew Hammond 2,500 miles (4,000 km) before they had the misfortune to meet up with HMS Cherub.

[13] They found that Porter had built Fort Madison, Nuku Hiva and a villa on the island, which the natives destroyed after his ship left.

Before his departure, Thomas Staines, with the consent of the local tribes excepting the "Typees" from the Tai Pi Valley, took possession of Nuku Hiva on behalf of the British Crown.