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 formed by the governor that peace had been concluded, he hurriedly put to sea with his prize. On 15 May 1721 he captured another ship named La Concepcion, laden with stores, and having on board more than a hundred thousand dollars in coin. According to Shelvocke's account, he closed with her because he wanted a pilot, the Concepcion fired on him as soon as he hoisted English colours, and he was obliged to fight in self-defense; and a declaration to this effect he compelled the officers and passengers to sign before he allowed them to depart in their ship, from which he first removed all that was valuable to the Santa Familia. He now thought it time to return to England, and, going north to California, filled up with water at a place he calls Puerto Seguro, where he noted that the soil was richly auriferous, and conjectured that very probably ‘this country abounds in metals of all sorts’ (Voyage, p. 401). It is not a little curious that in the account of this disorderly, semipiratical voyage mention should have been made of the gold of California and the guano of Peru a hundred and twenty or a hundred and thirty years before their modern discovery. On 18 Aug. 1721 the Santa Familia sailed for China, and on 11 Nov. anchored at Macao. Thence she went up the river to Whampoa, where, after paying harbour dues to the amount—as stated— of 2,000l., the ship was sold for 700l.. There can be no doubt that it was a fraudulent arrangement between Shelvocke and the Chinese officials. According to the accounts kept by the steward, the prize-money was then divided among the crew, each able seaman receiving 1,887 dollars and Shelvocke 11,325; in addition to which 10,032 were not accounted for, nor yet Shelvocke's share of the 2,000l. said to have been paid as harbour dues. Altogether, it was said, Shelvocke made not less than 7,000l. out of the voyage.

He returned to England in the Cadogan, East Indiaman, and landed at Dover on 30 July 1722. On arriving in London he was arrested on two charges of piracy; first for plundering the Portuguese ship on the coast of Brazil, and, secondly, for seizing the Santa Familia. The capture of the Concepcion does not seem to have been mentioned; and on the actual charges he was acquitted for want of legal evidence. He was also charged by the owners with defrauding them, but found means to escape from the king's bench prison and to fly the country. In 1726 he published ‘A Voyage round the World, by the Way of the Great South Sea, performed in the years 1719, 20, 21, 22 …’ (London, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1757), an interesting and amusing narrative, but not to be implicitly trusted. In 1728 Betagh published ‘A Voyage round the World, being an Account of a remarkable Enterprise begun in the year 1719 …’ which puts a very different colour on many incidents of the voyage, and in many respects appears more worthy of credit. It is, however, written with much ill-will, and its statements as to Shelvocke's conduct must be received with caution. According to it, Shelvocke was still in hiding abroad in 1728.

A son, George, who accompanied his father on the voyage, translated in 1729 Simienowicz's ‘Great Art of Artillery,’ fol.; in 1736 contributed to the ‘Universal History,’ fol.; and in 1757 edited a new edition of his father's voyage. From 1742 until his death in 1760 he was secretary to the general post office (Gent. Mag. 1760, p. 154).



SHENSTONE, WILLIAM (1714–1763), poet, born on 13 Nov. 1714, was baptised on 6 Dec. at Halesowen, Worcestershire. His father, Thomas, son of William Shenstone of Lappal, born in 1686, was churchwarden of Halesowen in 1723, and died in June 1724. His mother, who died in June 1732, aged 39, was Ann, eldest daughter and coheir of William Penn of Harborough Hall, Hagley. Shenstone had one brother, Thomas (1722–1751), who was brought up as an attorney, but never practised. The entries of the family in the Halesowen registers date back to the reign of Elizabeth (, Family of Shenstone the Poet, 1890).

Shenstone's first teacher was an old dame, Sarah Lloyd, whom he afterwards celebrated in the ‘Schoolmistress,’ and he soon acquired a great love for books. He was next sent to the Halesowen grammar school, and then to Mr. Crampton at Solihull. In May 1732 he matriculated from Pembroke College, Oxford, where he was a contemporary of Dr. Johnson. About the same time, on the death of his mother, Thomas Dolman, rector of Broome, near Kidderminster, who had married Shenstone's aunt, Mary Penn, became his guardian. When nineteen he wrote a mock-heroic poem, ‘The Diamond,’ and in 1737 he printed at Oxford, for private circulation, a small anonymous volume of ‘Poems on various Occasions, written for the entertainment of the author, and printed for the amusement of a few friends prejudiced in his favour.’ This volume, which Shenstone afterwards