Bligh was Troubled by the French

Conspiracy on the Bounty — Bligh’s Convenient Mutiny:
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Bligh was greatly troubled by the French ahead:

After the Bounty departed Tahiti and sailed towards Tonga, not only was Bligh confronted with the daily failure of his breadfruits, he was in dread of the French having already arrived at Torres Strait. Soon after anchoring at Matavai, Bligh received news that La Pérouse was indeed ahead of him. Due to the Bounty’s late arrival at Tahiti, Bligh had missed an all-important rendezvous at Matavai with Captain Sever of the Lady Penrhyn: a merchantman of the first fleet mysteriously off course from Sydney Cove. From reports that Sever left behind, Bligh learnt that the French had two ships somewhere west of him while frustratingly, he was stuck at Tahiti struggling with breadfruits for the duration of the monsoon. Bligh felt thwarted by the French and worse still, despite efforts to conceal his sickly plants, he rightly held that discipline would soon deteriorate.

(Image Wikimedia: King Louis XVI of France giving instructions to Lapérouse: painting by Monsieur Château of Verseilles, RMN-Grand Palais, France)