290 mutiny on the Bounty (1790) he had suppressed the Nian Rebellion in 1868, after which he spent six years of hard campaigning before pacifying these two provinces Xinjiang, in the far northwestern part of China, was its historic gateway to the West along the ancient Silk Road After several campaigns it was conquered in 1759 by Emperor Qianlong (Ch’ien-lung), who expelled the previously influential religious leaders called khojas to Khokand beyond China’s border After 1759 Xinjiang was governed by a military governor from Ili, who delegated local chieftains called begs to control the Muslims called Uighurs It was garrisoned by Manchu banner troops concentrated on the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains In 1864 as the Uighurs rebelled, Yakub Beg (1820–77), a Khokandian adventurer, invaded Xinjiang Preoccupied with rebellions elsewhere, the Qing government was unable to respond; thus Yakub Beg gained control of parts of northern Xinjiang (Kashgaria) and proclaimed himself ruler Russia took advantage of China’s disarray to occupy Ili Xinjiang became part of the Great Game between Great Britain and Russia for control of Central Asia After suppressing the Muslim rebellion in Shanxi and Gansu, the Qing court appointed Zuo Zongtang imperial commissioner to suppress the Xinjiang Rebellion An experienced and careful commander, he was able to crush the rebels in 1877 Yakub Beg committed suicide, and Xinjiang was pacified Russia was compelled to restore the Ili to China in the Treaty of St Petersberg in 1881 On Zuo’s recommendation Xinjiang received the status of province and was fully integrated into the Qing Empire The three Muslim rebellions were indicative of the decline of the Qing dynasty Their suppression, along with the defeat of other rebellions, would give a new lease on life to the dynasty See also Anglo-Russian rivalry Further reading: Chu, Wen-djang The Muslim Rebellions in Northwest China, 1862–1878: A Study of Government Minority Policy The Hague: Mouton, 1966; Kim, Hodong Holy War in China: The Muslim Rebellion and State in Chinese Central Asia, 1864–1877 Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004 Jiu-Hwa Lo Upshur mutiny on the Bounty (1790) In 1790 the crew of the Her Majesty’s Armed Vessel (HMAV) Bounty and the Polynesians accompanying them arrived to populate Pitcairn Island They found traces of earlier Polynesian settlements, but no indigenous people were resident at the time of their arrival Over 2,000 accounts of the mutiny and the subsequent settlement of Pitcairn have been told, often contradictory and must be regarded as part myth, part fiction Also, five motion pictures have captured the tale of the Bounty Vessels from the Royal Navy discovered Pitcairn Island in 1762, but the rough sea prevented any landings It rose to fame from the events that unfolded on the Bounty in 1789 The trader Bethia was armed and renamed HMAV Bounty and under command of Captain William Bligh sailed for the South Seas on December 23, 1787, with orders to collect seeds of the breadfruit tree to help feed African slaves in transit to the Americas After some difficulties, the Bounty arrived in Tahiti on October 30, 1788, and stayed for five months while the seeds were collected The Bounty left Tahiti but had only been at sea for three weeks when some of the crew mutinied under the leadership of Fletcher Christian The Royal Navy in those days was known for its harsh discipline Also, the pleasant lifestyle on Tahiti and the fact that several of the crew had engaged in intimate relations with local women might have inspired the subordination The events and roles in the mutiny remain disputed The Hollywood version shows the captain of the Bounty, William Bligh, as a inhuman tyrant, while recent research suggests that Christian may have been suffering from a mental condition that led to irrational behavior The captain and 18 loyal crewmembers were cast adrift in open boats and later picked up at sea The Bounty returned to Tahiti to pick up supplies, livestock, and to take some of the native Polynesians back with them Sixteen mutineers had decided to stay in Tahiti, but Christian rightfully thought it would be too risky—the Royal Navy captured those that stayed behind Christian and the others continued to search for an isolated island to settle on On January 15, 1790, the Bounty happened upon Pitcairn Their cargo was brought ashore, and on January 23 the Bounty was set on fire so it would not be spotted and reveal the presence of the mutineers on the island The soil was fertile and the climate warm A settlement was established at what is now known as Adamstown, and a kind of apartheid developed The male Tahitians did not receive any land, were treated like slaves, and had to share the women that were left after the mutineers chose their spouses The Tahitian men rebelled, and several mutineers were killed, Christian