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CHAPTER VI.
GOVERNOR BLIGH.
King's successor, Bligh, was a naval officer. Except during the ad interim tenures of office by Grose and Paterson, only sailors had held command in the colony. Bligh had obtained notoriety by the voyage of the Bounty, in which he sailed to procure bread-fruit trees in the Pacific and carry them to the West Indies. His arbitrary conduct excited ill-feeling before he arrived at Tahiti. The mate of the Bounty was Fletcher Christian, brother of a lawyer who edited Blackstone's "Commentaries." Educated, adventurous, and perhaps intolerant of discipline as well as tyranny, Christian was not inclined to bear the coarse insults which Bligh's ungovernable temper heaped upon those under his command. After leaving Tahiti in 1789, Bligh accused Christian of stealing, or combining to steal, cocoa-nuts. Christian controlled his temper and resolved to leave the ship. Others availed themselves of the indignity cast upon him. So many sailors had been flogged that a mutiny was easily planned and executed. Bligh and eighteen others were seized and put into the launch. After hardships which excited sympathy, Bligh made his way from the Friendly Isles to Timor with twelve companions. A boat voyage of more than forty days, compassing more than 3500 miles, would have somewhat redeemed his character even if his cruelties had been known. But the witnesses were far away.[1]
- ↑ Christian sailed to Toubonai after calling at Tahiti. Finding the natives hostile he returned to Tahiti, where several men who had taken no
