Mr.Hallet says I laughed in consequence of being called to by the captain, who was abaft the mizen-mast, while I was upon the platform near the fore hatchway, a distance of more than thirty feet: if the captain intended I should hear him, and there can be no doubt that he wished it--if he really called to me, he must have exerted his voice, and very considerably too, upon such an occasion and in such a situation; and yet Mr.Hallet himself, who, by being on the quarter-deck, could not have been half the distance from the captain that I was, even he, I say, could not hear what was said to me: how then, in the name of God, was it possible that I should have heard the captain at all, situated, as I must have been, in the midst of noisy confusion?
And if I did not hear him, which I most solemnly aver to be the truth, even granting that I laughed (which, however, in my present awful situation I declare I believe I did not), it could not have been at what the captain said.
Upon this ground, then, I hope I shall stand acquitted of this charge, for if the crime derives its guilt from the knowledge I had of the captain's speaking to me, it follows, of course, that if I did not hear him speak, there could be no crime in my laughing.

It may, however, very fairly be asked, why Mr.
Hallet did not make known that the captain was calling to me?
His duty to the captain, if not his friendship for me, should have prompted him to it; and the peculiarity of our situation required this act of kindness at his hands.[29] I shall only observe further upon this head, that the boatswain, the carpenter, and Mr.Hayward, who saw more of me than any other of the witnesses, did say in their evidence, that I had rather a sorrowful countenance on the day of the mutiny.
'_Fourth.

That I remained on board the ship, instead of going in the boat with the captain_ .-- That I was at first alarmed and afraid of going into the boat I will not pretend to deny; but that afterwards I wished to accompany the captain, and should have done it, if I had not been prevented by Thompson, who confined me below by the order of Churchill, is clearly proved by the evidence of several of the witnesses.

The boatswain says, that just before he left the ship I went below, and in passing him said something about a bag--( it was, that I would put a few things into a bag and follow him); the carpenter says he saw me go below at this time; and both those witnesses say that they heard the master-at-arms call to Thompson "_to keep them below_." The point, therefore, will be to prove to whom this order, "_keep them below_," would apply.
The boatswain and carpenter say they have no doubt of its meaning me as one; and that it must have been so, I shall have very little difficulty in showing, by the following statement:-- 'There remained on board the ship after the boat put off, twenty-five men.Messrs.Hayward and Hallet have proved that the following were under arms:--Christian, Hillbrant, Millward, Burkitt, Muspratt, Ellison, Sumner, Smith, Young, Skinner, Churchill, M'Koy, Quintal, Morrison, Williams, Thompson, Mills, and Brown, in all eighteen.

The master (and upon this occasion I may be allowed to quote from the captain's printed narrative) mentions Martin as one, which makes the number of armed men nineteen, none of whom, we may reasonably suppose, were ordered to be kept below.