Tai Pī (province)

During the wars between the Te I'i and the Tai Pī in 1813, the American navy Captain David Porter arrived in the frigate USS Essex and ten other armed ships on October 25.

The first expedition into the jungle was led by Lieutenant John Downes, He and forty others captured a fort held by 3,000 to 4,000 Happah warriors with the assistance of several hundred Te I'is.

Though the landing was unopposed, Porter's force of thirty men and a cannon led the march inland where they found another, more formidable, enemy fort.

Thousands of natives armed with rocks and spears, positioned in a formidable mountain fortress, were able[clarification needed] to fend off their enemies.

The victory was short-lived however and Captain Porter followed up his landing with an expedition overland, bypassing the fort, to threaten the Tai Pī's village center in Typee Valley as the Americans named it.

At least six British prisoners were at Nuku Hiva during the American operations against the natives, not including a number who volunteered to fight for Captain Porter.

He left behind only nineteen navy sailors and six prisoners under two midshipmen and United States Marine Corps Lieutenant John M. Gamble.

Ultimately Gamble beat off the enemy attack single-handedly though after the deaths of four of his men in town, there was no choice but to abandon the colony with the remaining seven, all of whom were either wounded or ill. After that the base was never again occupied by American forces.