عصیان!

CHAPTER TWO

Mutiny!

On the evening of 26th April Adams saw Bligh on deck. He looked angry, and stopped near Fletcher Christian.

‘Mr Christian’ Bligh said. ‘Where are my coconuts? I had fifty yesterday, and there are only twenty here now! Where are they? Do you know?’

‘No, sir,’ Christian said. ‘I don’t know. I never saw them. I didn’t take them - you know that!’

Captain Bligh looked at his tall young officer and said nothing. Bligh and Christian were once friends, Adams remembered. But not now. Bligh was often angry; Christian was always worried, afraid.

Bligh said: ‘Mr Christian, you took my coconuts! I know you did! You’re my second officer, but all you officers take my things! God damn you all!’

At four o’clock that morning, Adams saw Christian again. It was a quiet night, and the ship moved slowly through the water. Christian had a piece of wood with him, and a bag. His face was white in the moonlight. A young officer, George Stewart, talked to Christian.

‘What are you doing, Mr Christian,’ Stewart asked.

‘I’m in hell,’ Christian said. ‘Bligh doesn’t like me, or any of his officers! I must leave the ship!’

‘Leave? What are you talking about? How?’

‘I have some food in this bag, and wood, and I can swim,’ Christian said. ‘We’re not far from the island of Tafua. Perhaps I can swim there.’

‘Swim to Tafua? Of course you can’t, man! Do you want to die?’

‘It doesn’t matter! I can’t stay here with that man! I’m in hell, I tell you! Every day he shouts at me, and it takes a year to sail to England! I must leave the ship!’

‘I understand,’ Stewart said. ‘Many of us are afraid of Bligh - we don’t like him. But you must stay - you’re our best officer. Listen to me, now.’

Bligh was in bed when the door opened. Christian came in, with three sailors. It was still dark. Bligh opened his eyes. In the moonlight, he saw the gun in Christian’s hand.

‘What?’ Bligh sat up. ‘Get out, damn you! This is my-‘

‘Hold him’ Christian said. The sailors put Bligh’s arms behind his back, and Christian tied them with a rope. ‘Now, sir, come with us!’

They took Bligh out of his bed and up onto the deck. He wore a shirt, but no trousers or shoes. There were ten or twelve men there with guns and small swords. Christian held Bligh’s hands with the rope, and Adams stood behind Bligh with a gun.

‘What are you doing,’ Bligh said angrily. ‘Let me go at once! You’re-‘

‘Be quiet,’ Adams said. ‘Listen to Mr Christian!’

‘But I’m the captain-‘

‘Not now. This is our ship now,’ Christian said. ‘Adams, put the launch in the water.’

The launch was a small boat, seven metres long. Adams put it in the water next to the ship. ‘Right,’ Christian said. ‘Thank you, Adams. You stay with me.’

Christian looked at some other sailors. He didn’t like them. ‘You men’ he said. ‘Get into that boat! Quickly now!’

‘No’ Bligh shouted. ‘All of you, stay on this ship! Help me, now!’

He began to run, but Christian held the rope and Adams held a knife to his neck. ‘Do that again, Captain Bligh, and you’re a dead man’ he said quietly.

At the front of the ship, Peter Heywood came up on deck. ‘What’s happening,’ he asked. He was afraid.

‘Be quiet, Peter,’ Christian said. ‘You stay there. Get into the launch, you men’ he shouted, ‘I told you!’

Slowly, eighteen sailors got into the launch. Then Christian took Bligh to the side of the ship. ‘Now you, Captain,’ he said. ‘Over the side.’

Two men carried Bligh over the side of the ship. Then the sailors threw some bread into the launch, with a barrel of water, a little meat, bottles of rum and wine, some rope and sails, and some of the captain’s books.

‘You see, we aren’t going to kill you,’ Christian said. ‘You can live on that, for a week or two.’

‘But why are you doing this, Christian,’ Bligh shouted angrily. ‘I’m your captain - and your friend!’

‘No you’re not, Not now,’ Christian said. ‘Don’t you understand? I’m in hell, with you here on this ship!’

‘You’re going to be in hell all your life now, Christian, because of this’ Bligh said.

Bligh sat in the launch with eighteen men. Christian and the sailors watched him from the back of the ship, then they opened a bottle of rum, and laughed.

‘England is that way, Captain Bligh’ one of the sailors said. ‘Thirty thousand kilometres to the north!’

‘Forget England, my friend,’ Adams said. ‘I’m thinking about Tahiti, and those beautiful women! We’re going to be happy now, on Tahiti with Mr Christian!’

Christian looked at Adams for a minute, but he didn’t smile. His face, in the early morning sun, was white and cold. Then he looked at the launch, far away across the sea, with nineteen men in it.

‘Tahiti, England, or the Bounty-it doesn’t matter, John,’ he said. ‘I’m going to live and die in hell.’