After three days the visitor, who never gave his name to Ashton, departed on a hunting trip. Ashton, due to weak health and sores on his feet had to stay behind. It was the last they saw each other. "When he was absent for about an hour, a violent gust of wind and rain arose, in which he probably perished," accounts Ashton.
The short visit uplifted Ashton's spirits and left him with five pounds of pork, a knife, gunpowder, tobacco, tongs and flint to make fire. With these minimal resources Ashton was able to endure the rainy season that arrived and slowly begun to recover his strength. Lobster and turtles proved to be especially good eating.
A few months later the survivor came across his companion's canoe washed out on shore. This confirmed the likely death of his companion.
Ashton used the canoe to paddle to Helene, Moratt and Barbaratt and one day decided to embark onto a voyage to clearly visible Guanaja. This was an open ocean voyage of 12 miles from Barbaratt, or 22 miles from Port Royal.
He spotted a sloop off the island's east end, but stayed clear of it as it could have been another pirate ship. He hid his canoe and then journeyed across Bonacca's forrest that was so thick that he had to crawl on his hands and feet for distances of half a mile or longer. It took him over two days to cross the 'Pine Island.'
When he approached the place where the spotted sloop was anchored, she was already gone. He took a nap on the beach, but was suddenly awakened by gunfire and nine canoes closing in. He ran into the forest and deducted the men to be Spaniards. The men fired 150 shots towards Ashton, but eventually retreated to a ship flying an English flag.
It took Ashton three days back to retrieve his canoe and he suffered from lack of food, as Guanaja was not as abundant in fruits and nourishment, and "the insects were infinitely more numerous and harassing." He thus decided to cut his Guanaja exploration short and headed back, paddling back with the current towards Barbaratt and Roatan, "a royal place to me compared to Bonacco."
After several more months of living on the island, in June 1724, Ashton spotted two canoes arriving at his cay. He was hesitant in making contact with the men as the memory of the Bonacca confrontation rang as a caution. Curiosity led the men to a conversation and they presented themselves from "the Bay of Honduras."
The visitors were extremely amazed as to Ashton's worn appearance, and skeleton-like body. They embraced him and carried him on their hands to the canoes.
The party consisted of 18 men, led by John Hope and his companion John Ford. They fled the Mosquito Coast anticipating a Spanish attack from the sea and the Spanish allies, the Indians, attacking from the land.
Hope and Ford had had previously lived on Barbarat for four years, fleeing the Mosquito Coast for similar reasons. They returned again and constructed two houses on a cay of Barbarat's coast named by them Castle of Comfort.
The group had brought hunting dogs, flour, firearms and nets for turtle catching. An Indian woman accompanied them and took care of cooking and washing.
While initially Ashton appreciated his companions' care and provisions, he soon decided that: "Yet after all they were bad society, (…) there was little difference between them and pirates." After a few months Ashton recovered some of his strength and was able to join the group in hunting excursions.
While Ashton was away on a hunting party on Barbarat, a group of pirates raided they cay and chased them back to Roatan. The group of pirates served under the command of Spriggs, who deserted Ed Low in pursuit of their own riches in the Bay of Honduras. Spriggs' two vessels anchored in Port Royal - Rotan Harbour, to work on the boat maintenance and replenish water and food.
The pirates murdered one of the Bay men, placed his body in a canoe full of tar and set it ablaze. They raped the Indian woman and moved the rest of the prisoners to Roatan.
Aston and his companions observed the happenings from a distance and for five days survived on raw provisions, afraid to start a fire that would give away their position. The pirates did eventually leave, and left the prisoners with some supplies and no large canoes, only a flat bottom boat worthy of a passage to mainland.
The party led by Hope decided to head back to the Mosquito Coast and Ashton decided to stay behind with John Symonds, and his Black slave. The plan was to wait for Jamaican fishermen to eventually come to Roatan, as they usually did in the spring of each year, and take them to Jamaica and eventually England.
As the rainy season ended the men decided to head to Guanaja and then to the mainland to trade some turtle shells for shoes and clothing that could be had from boats presumed to be sheltering there.
Upon reaching Guanaja, the men were surprised by a vicious storm, possibly a hurricane, that lasted three days. They eventually spotted several vessels and made contact with men dressed in an English fashion.
The vessels were part of a convoy heading to Jamaica that separated during the storm. The brigantine accompanying man-of-war HMS Diamond came to Bonacca to get water for the sick crew. Ashton was welcomed aboard and offered a paid position of a seaman.
He said goodbye to John Symonds, who decided to stay behind. It was March 1725. Ashton soon reached Jamaica and sailed north to the port of Salem, which he reached in May - almost three years after being taken by the pirates.

Dallas Martens, 31, a Canadian schoolteacher was shot dead on the side of a road while he attempted to help his wife who was assaulted by two armed men.
On September 18, Dallas Martens and his wife Krissy Larsen-Martens celebrated their first wedding anniversary at a West Bay restaurant. Driving back, they decided to glance back at a property they were considering to purchase. Around 8:30pm, they pulled off the West Bay road and drove around 50 meters to a half finished house.
According to the testimony of Krissy Martens, two tall men, Spanish-speaking, masked and armed with guns appeared and attempted to rob her. Krissy Martens said that Dallas Martens confronted and distracted them, so she was able to escape and run towards the main road, then catch a taxi towards West End to come back with help.
By September 30, Roatan police had arrested four male suspects and considers Krissy Martens as a suspect in the case.

The couple came to Roatan to adopt a baby in December 2008. While waiting for the paperwork to go through, they both worked at the Sandy Bay Alternative School and volunteered at the Familias Saludables AIDS project.
A $7,000 reward, gathered mostly from couple's friends and Roatan's foreign residents, was announced for information leading to the arrest of the suspects. Four men suspected of involvement in the murder were arrested on September 26.
This is a fourth month in the row, and fifth this year, that a foreigner is killed on Roatan. In January, Roger Walls, another Canadian and like Martens also from Saskatoon Province, was shot and eventually died.
Canadian government posted a travel warning for Honduras: "Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada advises against non-essential travel to Honduras, with the exception of the Bay Islands, where Canadians should continue to exercise a high degree of caution."

A trial has reopened about the mysterious death of Dutch tourist Mariska Mast, 23, that took place in the early morning of August 23, 2008.
On September 22, Ji-Soo Han, 25, a South Korean citizen who was present during the incident, has been flown to Roatan after being arrested in Egypt. Han was arrested on an Interpol warrant when attempting to leave Egypt where she worked as a dive master.
Another Interpol warrant is still in place for Daniel Ross, 30, British and Australian citizen at whose apartment Mariska's death occurred. Following the incident, Ross, a West End dive instructor, spent five days in the Roatan jail, but was eventually released. While his British passport has been retained by police, he fled the country on his other, an Australian passport.
While originally Mast's cause of death was determined inconclusive, Fiscalia now say that Mast died due to "cranial lesion." Numerous marks on the body implied a possible strangulation attempt or beating, and alerted the Dutch authorities who in turn put pressure on the Honduran police investigators to reexamine the case. Dutch embassy representatives and private investigators made several visits to Roatan to work on the case.

Mast went out drinking with Ross then followed him to his West End apartment, which he shared with Han. According to Ross and Han's testimonies from 2008, sometime around 3am, Mast collapsed and hit her head on a toilet chipping her tooth. Mast's condition deteriorated, and around 6am she was driven to the Coxen Hole hospital in the back of the landlord's truck. Upon arrival she was pronounced dead.
The details of the case are unclear and evidence has been disturbed. Authorities are suspicious of Ross leaving the hospital and returning to the apartment where the landlady has seen him cleaning up the death scene before the police could arrive.
The local dive community and police have several possible explanations for the death: accidental death from falling down, decompression sickness mixed with alcohol, battery during an attempted rape, or rough-sex-gone-bad incident.
Implications of the case reemerging go beyond the possible prosecution of the two suspects. If Mast's death was indeed a murder, not an accident, she would be the first tourist killed on Roatan in recent times.