At length the commissary was enabled to issue some slop-clothing to the convicts, a quantity having been received by the _Walker_; but, unfortunately, much of what had been put on board arrived in a very damaged state, as appeared by a survey which was immediately taken. On the 14th the _Martha_ schooner anchored in the cove from Bass Strait, whence she had brought with her one thousand seal skins and thirty barrels of oil, which had been procured there among the islands. The court of criminal judicature being assembled on the 16th, two mates of the _Walker_ were brought before it, and tried for using menaces to a person who had stopped their boat when attempting to land spirits without a permit; but as he had not any special authority for making the seizure, or detaining the boat, they were acquitted. One man, John Chapman Morris, was found guilty of forgery by the the same court, and received sentence of death; but as this had been determined by the majority of one voice only, whereas the letters patent for establishing the court expressly say that five of the members are to concur in a capital case, this business must, as provided also by the patent, be referred to the King in council. It was hoped that this circumstance would but seldom occur, as the object of it must, during the reference, remain a prisoner, with all the miserable sensations that a person would experience under sentence of death. The time that he must linger in this uncomfortable situation could not well be less than fifteen or eighteen months; and, admitting that the length of it might have deadened the acuteness of his first sensations, and rendered him thoughtless as to the event, yet how would that acuteness be aggravated, should, unhappily for him, the sentence be at last confirmed by the royal approbation!* [* It may be pleasing to the reader to learn, that both Isaac Nichols (see Chapter XVII viz: "The criminal court was only once assembled during this month; when one man was condemned to death for a burglary, and another transported for fourteen years to Norfolk Island. This man, Isaac Nichols, an overseer, had been accused of receiving stolen goods; but from some circumstances which occurred on the trial, the sentence was respited until his Majesty's pleasure could be taken.") and this man, have recently received his Majesty's pardon.]