Mutiny on the Bounty his authority was slipping. He called a meeting to discuss future plans and offered a free vote. Eight remained loyal to Christian, the hard core of the active mutineers, but sixteen wished to return to Tahiti and take their chances there. Christian accepted this decision; after depositing the majority at Tahiti, he would "run before the wind, and ... land upon the first island the ship drives. After what I have done I cannot remain at Tahiti". When "Bounty" returned to Tahiti, on 22 September, the welcome was much less effusive than previously. The Tahitians had learned from the crew
Bounty jumper purpose of capturing the bounty jumpers. One bounty jumper became particularly famous. Adam Worth became an international thief, with the theft of Thomas Gainsborough's painting "Duchess" being his most famous crime. He would become known as the "Napoleon of Crime", a label Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would borrow when creating the character Professor Moriarty, whom Doyle loosely based on Worth. According to William Pinkerton, Worth did actually fight once, for the Union in the Battle of the Wilderness, and once collected a $30 Confederate bounty, only to eventually fight for the Union. Pinkerton further said that Worth did what he