It was stated in our first Number that a part of the plan of this Journal would be to place on record deeds of gallantry in saving life from shipwreck, as an example and en- couragement to others " to go and do like- wise;" and perhaps hi the annals of disasters at sea it would be difficult to select an in- stance that, for bold daring and cool judg- ment on the part of the officers and men of the Coast-Guard and the fishermen near the Land's End, surpasses the case we are about to relate. We have abridged the nar-ative from the Bayed Cornwall Gazette of the 17th January, 1851, to which paper it was contributed, we believe, by the Rev.

GREGORY, rector of Mullion, who was an eye- witness of the deeds that he recounts:— Early on Saturday morning, the llth January, 1851, the brig New Commercial, of Whitby, 250 tons burden, SANDERSON mas- ter, bound from Liverpool to the Spanish Main, in a thick fog and fresh breeze from the S.S.W., struck upon a ledge of rocks which connect the Great and Little Brisson, two islets rising from 60 to 70 feet above high-water mark, about one mile off the bluff headland of Cape Cornwall, and four miles northward from the Land's End.

The sea running., very high, the vessel imme- diately went to pieces; and the crew, nine men, with one woman, the wife of the mas- ter, got on the ledge. They were discovered from the shore as soon as day broke, but no assistance could then possibly be rendered them. In this perilous condition the poor creatures remained until about 9 o'clock, when they were all washed off together by one tremendous wave, when seven of the ten sunk at once into a watery grave. Of the remaining three, one, a Mulatto, ISAAC WILLIAMS, contrived to get on a portion of the floating wreck; and after having been beaten about for some hours, was rescued by five fishermen belonging to Sennen, a small fishing cove close to the Land's End, who determined, with that bold and resolute spirit for which these men are distinguished, to launch their boat, the Grace, through the breakers, in which they happily succeeded, and eventually, after encountering great diffi- culty and risk, they rescued the poor Mulatto from his perilous situation.

The other two, the master and his wife, when they were carried off the ledge, which covers at half tide, were washed upon the Little Brisson Rock, which rises in a peaked head, and is the resort of numerous sea fowl.

The master first gained a footing upon the rock, and upon looking around him saw his wife struggling in the waves, but sufficiently near to enable him to stretch out his hand and pull her in.—While the Sennen fisher- men were occupied in rescuing the Mulatto, H.M. Revenue Cutter Sylvia, commanded by Mr. FORWARD, was seen gallantly work- ing round the Land's End, having been or- dered to the spot by Captain DAVIES, R.N., the late, and still acting Inspecting Com- mander of the Coast-Guard of this district.

Captain DAVIES himself, with Lieutenant MAXEY, R.N., of Sennen, and Mr. PAULE of Pendeen, took up their stations upon the lofty promontory of Cape Cornwall, overlook- ing the Brissons. On reaching the point, Mr. FORWARD launched his boat, and at- tempted with a crew of four men to get near the rock. But the attempt was fruitless; and it was only with great difficulty that he re- gained the cutter, to the great relief of Cap- tain DAVIES and the numerous spectators upon the cliffs, who rejoiced to perceive, that though success did not attend his daring ex- ploit, still he himself and his gallant crew at least were safe.

It was now growing late, and nothing more could be attempted in the way of res- cue for the day, so Mr. FORWARD hoisted his colours and hove-to his craft to encourage the poor sufferers, who were now to be left to spend the wretched night, which was gathering its shadows round them, without food or shelter, and exposed to the wind and rain, upon this desolate rock, amid the wide waste of waters; and to assure them that, under God, they had still a friend, who, with His blessing, would stand by and not forsake them.

On Sunday morning, the wind happily drew a little to the S.E., which caused the sea to abate. All hands were immediately on the alert, and, if great excitement pre- vailed among the people along the coast on Saturday, it was not at all lessened on this day. Hundreds began to assemble as soon as it was light, and the number greatly in- creased as the day wore on. Towards the middle of the day, the sun shone out, and by lighting up the coast, with the magnificent scenery all around, added greatly to the feverish interest of the scene. At one o'clock, four boats were approaching from Sennen Cove; three manned by fishermen and one by the Coast-Guard; and at the same time Captain DAVIES arrived, having embarked in.

a preventive boat at a small cove called Pen- deen, about three miles N.E. of the spot, with four preventive men and one miner, taking rockets with him which he had brought from Penzance. The cutter's boat also was manned by Mr. FORWARD, so that six boats were speedily on the spot.

By this time the scene had become one of the most exciting description, and the crowds of people upon the cliffs could not have numbered less than five or six thousand.

And as each boat arrived at the site, the cheers of this vast multidude, awaking all the echoes of this cavernous coast, added not a little to the excitement.

The sea still ran so high that no boat could venture within one hundred yards of the rock. The 9-pounder (DENNETT'S) rockets which Captain DAVIES had taken with him in the preventive boat, (a light galley only 26 feet long by 5 feet wide,) had never been tried here before, even from the shore, and, we believe, never elsewhere from a boat.

By the printed instructions, the person firing should be several feet in the rear to be free from danger. One of the men, SELLV, a gunner, volunteered to fire them, although he had never seen one used before; but Captain DAVIES, with that generous and dis- interested consideration which marks his whole conduct, would not suffer any one of his crew to incur a risk which he himself did not share; so, after anchoring his boat within about 100 yards of the rock, erecting the triangle or rocket frame, placing another boat astern to train his own, and having put his crew into one of the Sennen boats, he re- mained alone and with his own hand dis- charged the rocket. He was enveloped for the instant in a sheet of Same from the back fire. Happily, however, he sustained no injury; but the line which reached the rock, fell unfortunately upon a sharp ledge, that cut the rope, so that the end of it slipped off into the sea. It is impossible to describe the disappointment experienced by the people upon the cliffs and in the boats at this unfavourable result of such a daring ex- periment. After a short delay, however, another rocket was prepared, which Captain DAVIES again himself discharged; and this time the cord fell on the rock close by the man, to the great joy and delight of the assembled multitude, whose minds had been so long oscillating between hope and fear.

As the line fell on the rock, the woman was observed to raise her clasped hands to Heaven in apparent thankfulness. At this critical moment, the sun shone forth once more with increased brilliancy, and whilst it seemed to speak hope to the bosom of the anxious spectators, the man on the rock was seen to fasten the line around the waist of his wife and to encourage her to take the fearful leap—whilst she lingered and hesi- tated to jump into the foaming waters.

After some little time, however, his persua- sions prevailed; they took an affecting leave of each other, and amid the breathless ex- pectation of all, she made the awful plunge for life or death from a height of about 12 feet. At this moment three immense waves broke in rapid succession, perilling the safety of all. For a time, indeed, the boats were entirely hidden from the view of the spectators, and the loud cry broke forth from thousands of voices ' They are gone.'— The females, in particular, among the crowd were so horror-stricken, that they turned away their heads from the fearful spectacle before them and shrieked aloud.

But soon again the boats were seen above the swelling waves, and the lofty cliffs once more rung with approving cheers. The line was drawn with great judgment; and after about three minutes the poor woman ap- peared. She was taken into one of the boats, but the blows from the waves were more than her exhausted frame could bear.

No attention that could be shown her was spared. The men took off their own clothes to cover her, and used every effort to re- store animation. She breathed, but by the time the boat reached the Cove, life had fled.

After the master had persuaded his wife to leave him, he fastened the cord around his own waist, and was drawn, greatly exhausted, into one of the other boats, and shortly after landed at Sennen, where the survivors re- ceived every care from Mr. QUICK, surgeon of St. Just, and especially from Mrs. MAXEY, at the Coast-Guard Station, of whose kindness ISAAC WILLIAMS said " she could not have done more for me had I been her own son." We are often doomed to witness fearful shipwrecks on the exposed coast of Corn- wall, but no disaster of the kind has excited such intense sympathy in the neighbourhood as the present, and its peculiar circumstances have thrown an interest around the Brissons which will not soon die away.

Commander DAVIES had been promoted to the rank of Captain only a few days before this shipwreck took place, for former gallant services. He has received a medal from the Humane Society, 3 medals from the National Shipwreck Institution, 2 from the late King of the French, 3 pieces of plate from the Shipping Association and the Danish Government, and a sword from the French Chamber of Commerce, for services of a similar kind performed elsewhere, in the course of which he has been personally engaged in saving 200 lives from shipwreck.

On the present occasion Captain DAVIES was awarded the gold medal of the Na- tional, Shipwreck Institution, and the'' highest approbation of the Lords of the Admiralty." The medal of Lloyd's was also conferred upon him for his conduct on this occasion conjointly with numerous former services, and he is the only officer now living who can boast of this latter distinction.

Shortly after the occurrence above narrated Captain DAVIES was appointed ' Inspector of Life Boats' to the Shipwreck Institution, on the nomination of His Grace the Duke of NORTHUMBERLAND, the President; an office which he has since necessarily vacated on being elected to the post of Chief Constable of the county of Cambridge; he continues how- ever a member of the Committee of Manage- ment of the Institution.

Since the above was in type, and at the moment of going to press, we have received the following gratifying proof of the estima- tion in which Captain DAVIES' services are held :— Admiralty, 20th March, 1852.

DEAR SIR, It gives me much pleasure that I am able to offer you, for your son, the first naval cadetship which has fallen to me,—as it enables me to express to you that I offer it as a high mark of my approbation of the great services you have rendered to the cause of humanity, and of the respect which I feel for your gallant conduct at the Land's End.

Yours, &c., NORTHUMBERLAND.

Captain George Dairies, R.N.

This is as it should be. The whole naval service, nay, all friends to the cause of hu- manity, will rejoice at this public and prompt acknowledgment of such gallant conduct.

Acts like these will add a pearl to the Ducal coronet, more precious than any previous acquisition of the House of Percy.

A silver medal was awarded by the Ship- wreck Institution to each of the Coast-Guard men who went off in the Pendeen boat, namely, JAMES BURN and W. H. SELLY, commissioned boatmen; T. KEELEY and R. EASTAWAY, boatmen; and to T. THOMAS, a Cornish miner 1Z. To those who went off in the boat of the Revenue Cutter Sylvia, a gold medal to the Commander Mr. T. R.

FORWARD, and a silver medal to the follow- ing,—C. S. CARR, gunner, J. RICHARDS, W. SURRY, H. JONES, H. RICHARDS, sea- men, and J. WARD, boy. To W. ROBERTS and four other fishermen who formed the crew of the Grace Sennen fishing boat, 1Z.

each; and to S. NICHOLAS and four other fishermen who went off in the Two Brothers, also 1J. each.

Mr. PEARCE, the active agent of Lloyd's at Penzance, was on the spot at the earliest moment, and as usual showed the utmost anxiety to render assistance; nor must we forget the hardy miners, who behaved nobly in launching the Coast-Guard boat at Pendeen Cove.

Rockets have since been placed at Sermen and Pendeen at the public expense, on the recommendation of the Comptroller-General of the Coast-Guard. And as an additional acknowledgment of the gallantry displayed on this occasion by the Coast-Guard men and Cornish fishermen, the National Ship- wreck Institution have ordered a life-boat to be built, which will be complete in the course of this month—and be stationed at Sennen Cove at the Land's End.