The 1787 breadfruit expedition

The ship had been purchased by the Royal Navy for a single mission in support of an experiment: she was to travel to Tahiti, pick up breadfruit plants, and transport them to the West Indies in hopes that they would grow well there and become a cheap source of food for slaves.
The experiment was proposed by Sir Joseph Banks, who recommended Bligh as commander, and was promoted through a prize offered by the Royal Society.
Sir Joseph Banks was at that time the unofficial director of Kew Gardens.
 
In June 1787, Bounty was refitted at Deptford.  The great cabin was converted to house the potted breadfruit plants, and gratings fitted to the upper deck.
Her complement was 46 officers and men.
 
On 23 December 1787, Bounty sailed from Spithead for Tahiti.
For a full month, she attempted to round Cape Horn, but adverse weather blocked her. Bligh ordered her turned about, and proceeded east, rounding the Cape of Good Hope and crossing the width of the Indian Ocean. During the outward voyage, Bligh demoted the ship's sailing master, John Fryer, replacing him with Fletcher Christian. This act seriously damaged the relationship between Bligh and Fryer, and Fryer would later claim Bligh's act was entirely personal.
The Bounty reached Tahiti on 26 October 1788, after ten months at sea.
 
Bligh and his crew spent five months in Tahiti, then called "Otaheite," collecting and preparing a total of 1,015 breadfruit plants; the five-month layover was unplanned, required to allow the plants to reach the point of development where they could be safely transported by ship.  Bligh allowed the crew to live ashore and care for the potted breadfruit plants, and they became socialised to the customs and culture of the Tahitians.
Many of the seamen and some of the "young gentlemen" had themselves tattooed in native fashion.
Master's Mate and Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian married Maimiti, a Tahitian woman.
Other warrant officers and seamen of the Bounty were also said to have formed "connections" with native women.
 
Bligh was not surprised by his crew's reaction to the Tahitians. He recorded his analysis:
 "The women are handsome ... and have sufficient delicacy to make them admired and beloved - The chiefs have taken such a liking to our people that they have rather encouraged their stay among them than otherwise, and even made promises of large possessions. Under these and many other attendant circumstances equally desirable it is therefore now not to be wondered at ... that a set of sailors led by officers and void of connections ... should be governed by such powerful inducement ... to fix themselves in the midst of plenty in the finest island in the world where they need not labour, and where the allurements of dissipation are more than equal to anything that can be conceived."
 - A Narrative of the Mutiny, etc., by Lieut. W. Bligh, 1790, p. 9.
 
Despite the relaxed atmosphere, relations between Bligh and his men, and particularly between Bligh and Christian, continued to deteriorate.
Christian was routinely humiliated by the captain, often in front of the crew and the native Tahitians, for real or imagined slackness, while severe punishments were handed out to men whose carelessness had led to the loss or theft of equipment. Floggings, rarely administered during the outward voyage, now became a common occurrence; as a consequence, crewmen Millward, Muspratt and Churchill deserted the ship. They were quickly recaptured, and a search of their belongings revealed a list of names which included those of Christian and Heywood. Bligh confronted the pair and accused them of complicity in the desertion plot, which they strenuously denied; without further corroboration Bligh could not act against them.
 
As the date for departure grew closer, Bligh's outbursts against his officers became more frequent.
One witness reported that "Whatever fault was found, Mr Christian was sure to bear the brunt."
Tensions rose among the men, who faced the prospect of a long and dangerous voyage that would take them through the uncharted Endeavour Strait followed by many months of hard sailing.
Bligh was impatient to be away, but in Hough's words he "failed to anticipate how his company would react to the severity and austerity of life at sea ... after five dissolute, hedonistic months at Tahiti".
On 5 April, Bounty finally weighed anchor and made for the open sea.
 

Captain Bligh's cargo on the Bounty was 1,015 breadfruit plants growing in tubs? Needless to say, he had to return to Tahiti in August 1791 to gather more breadfruit plants which he successfully delivered to Jamaica.