BLIGH, WILLIAM, an English admiral, b. 1753, celebrated in connection with the mutiny of the Bounty. Having made a voyage round the world under capt. Cook, he was sent out, Dec. 23, 1787, by the British government, as commander of the ship Bounty, to Tahiti, there to collect bread-fruit-tree plants, and thence sail with them to the Wrest India colonies, where government was anxious to introduce them. The ship arrived at her destination in Oct. of the following year, and in six months after was ready to sail for Jamaica, with 1015 plants on board. Partly on account of their demoralization by residence on so charming and pro ductive an island, and partly owing to the harsh and tyrannical treatment they met with from their commander, a part of the crew mutinied, after they had been 24 days out, on the 2Sth April, and forced the captain and 18 men into the ship's launch, which they cast adrift, turning their own course back to Tahiti, and ultimately settling on Pitcairn's island (q.v.). The captain and his companions, who had very little provision, and no sextant or map, arrived, after most incredible hardship, at the island of Timor, on the 14th .Tune, a distance of 3600 nautical m. from the point where they were abandoned. To the skill and prudence of B., the fact that not a single life was lost, is chiefly to be attributed. On B.'s arrival in England. a man-of-war, under
capt. Edwards, was sent, at his instance, to capture the mutineers. Some of them were seized; the rest had escaped to Pitcairn's island, with Fletcher Christian, the leader of the mutiny. Their place of refuge, however, was not discovered until 1808, when an American ship accidentally touched at the island. At that time, drunkenness, debauchery, and unbridled passion had left only one of the mutineers, John Adams, remaining. Their fortunes here were made the subject of a poem by Byron, entitled The Island; or Christian and his Comrades. B. was again sent out to collect bread-fruit trees, and convey them to the West Indies, in which he was completely successful. In the French revolutionary war, B. commanded a ship of the line, but again exciting the disaffection of his men by his harshness, they mutinied, and ran the ship into a French harbor. In 1806, B. was appointed governor of New South Wales, but his conduct here was so tyrannical as to cause universal dissatisfaction; and in 1808. unable to tolerate his rule, the civil and military officers of the colony summarily terminated his govern ment by arresting him. He died iu 1817.