Combat· U.S. Exploring Expedition (Wilkes)
First Sualib village punitive landing
A small reprisal in the Fiji group during the expedition's survey work there.
After a morning of hostile movements by the islanders, Lieutenant Wilkes ordered a punitive landing at the village of Sualib. The schooner Flying-Fish and the boats of the squadron carried a party of about eighty Marines and sailors into Sualib Bay and put them ashore. The village, some sixty huts, was burned to the ground against little resistance, and the party re-embarked. A few of the Americans were wounded, only one of them severely, and none were killed. The action settled the immediate provocation but did nothing to ease the tension on Malolo, and it was soon overshadowed by the killing of two of the expedition's officers a short time later, which brought on a far heavier American reprisal against the same island.
Record no. 316