on my conduct during the
mutiny, and from a recollection of my behaviour previous
thereto, they were convinced I would have afforded them all
the assistance in my power, if an opportunity had offered to
retake the ship.

'_Third. That, upon being called to by the captain, I
laughed_.--If this was believed by the Court, it must have
had, I am afraid, a very great effect upon its judgement; for,
if viewed in too serious a light, it would seem to bring
together and combine a number of trifling circumstances, which
by themselves could only be treated merely as matters of
suspicion. It was no doubt, therefore, received with caution,
and considered with the utmost candour. The countenance, I
grant, on some other occasions, may warrant an opinion of good
or evil existing in the mind; but on the momentous events of
life and death, it is surely by much too indefinite and
hazardous even to listen to for a moment. The different ways
of expressing our various passions are, with many, as variable
as the features they wear. Tears have often been, nay
generally are, the relief of excessive joy, while misery and
dejection have, many a time, disguised themselves in a smile;
and convulsive laughs have betrayed the anguish of an almost
broken heart. To judge, therefore, the principles of the
heart, by the barometer of the face, is as erroneous as it
would be absurd and unjust. This matter may likewise be
considered in another point of view. 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