It was while steering to reach this group of islands, that, one morning, a passenger on board the Blendenhall, who chanced to be upon deck earlier than usual, observed great quantities of sea-weed occasionally floating alongside.  This excited some alarm, and a man was immediately sent aloft to keep a good look-out.  The weather was then extremely hazy, though moderate; the weeds continued; all were on the alert; they shortened sail, and the boatswain piped for breakfast.  In less than ten minutes, “breakers ahead!” startled every soul, and in a moment all were on deck.  “Breakers starboard! breakers larboard! breakers all around,” was the ominous cry a moment afterwards, and all was confusion.  The words were scarcely uttered, when, and before the helm was up, the ill-fated ship struck, and after a few tremendous shocks against the sunken reef, she parted about mid-ship.  Ropes and stays were cut away—­all rushed forward, as if instinctively, and had barely reached the forecastle, when the stern and quarter-deck broke asunder with a violent crash, and sunk to rise no more.  Two of the seamen miserably perished—­the rest, including officers, passengers and crew, held on about the head and bows—­the struggle was for life!

At this moment, the Inaccessible Island, which till then had been veiled in thick clouds and mist, appeared frowning above the haze.  The wreck was more than two miles from the frightful shore.  The base of the island was still buried in impenetrable gloom.  In this perilous extremity, one was for cutting away the anchor, which had been got up to the cat-head in time of need; another was for cutting down the foremast (the foretop-mast being already by the board.) The fog totally disappeared, and the black rocky island stood in all its rugged deformity before their eyes.  Suddenly the sun broke out in full splendor, as if to expose more clearly to the view of the sufferers their dreadful predicament.  Despair was in every bosom—­death, arrayed in all its terrors, seemed to hover over the wreck.  But exertion was required, and every thing that human energy could devise was effected.  The wreck, on which all eagerly clung, was fortunately drifted by the tide and wind between ledges of sunken rocks and thundering breakers, until, after the lapse of several hours, it entered the only spot on the island where a landing was possibly practicable, for all the other parts of the coast consisted of perpendicular cliffs of granite, rising from amidst the deafening surf to the height of twenty, forty, and sixty feet.  As the shore was neared, a raft was prepared, and on this a few paddled for the cove.  At last the wreck drove right in:  ropes were instantly thrown out, and the crew and passengers, (except two who had been crushed in the wreck,) including three ladies and a female attendant, were snatched from the watery grave, which a few short hours before had appeared inevitable, and safely landed on the beach.  Evening had now set in, and every