direction, rocks of all sizes, some just below the water, others
rising above it to various heights; and although there are no regular
tides, there are powerful and very variable currents, and many a ship
has been cast away in consequence of them--the master, by his
calculations, fancying himself often well free of the danger, on which
he has been in reality running headlong.

The _Ione_ had stood to the southward, and had tacked again to the
northward, with the island of Milo blue and distant on her weather beam,
when, just as the sun, in his full radiance of glory, was rising over
the land, the look-out ahead hailed that there were breakers on the
starboard bow.

"How far do you make them?" asked Linton, who was the officer of the
watch, as he went forward to examine them himself with his telescope.
"By Jove! there is a mass of black rocks there; and I believe there is
somebody waving to us on them," he exclaimed. "Here, Raby, take my
glass, and see what you can make out."

"I can make it out clearly, sir," replied the midshipman. "There are a
number of people on them, and they have a sheet or blanket, or something
of that sort, made fast to a boathook or small spar, and they are waving
it to attract our attention."

"They have been cast away, then, depend on it, and we must go and see
what we can do for them," said Linton. "Run down and tell the captain;
and, as you come back, rouse out the master, and ask him how close we
may go to the rocks."

The captain and master, as well as all the officers, were soon on deck,
and the brig was looking well up towards the rocks, within a few cables'
length of which, to leeward, the pilot said they might venture.

There was a good deal of sea running, for it had been blowing very hard
the previous day; but the wind had gone down considerably, and Captain
Fleetwood expressed his opinion that there would not be much difficulty
in getting the people off the rocks, provided they could find an
approach to them on the lee side; but on getting nearer, the rock
appeared to be of so small an extent, that the waves curled round it,
and made it almost as dangerous to near it on one side as on the other.

"I think that I can make out a part of the wreck jammed in between two
rocks, just flush with the water," observed Saltwell, who had been
examining the place with his glass. "An awkward place to get on."

"Faith, indeed, it is," said the master. "If we hadn't come up, and
anot