—Boston News-Letter, July 9, 1722.
Philip Ashton served, unwillingly, with Low in the schooner “Fancy,” in the “Rose Pink,” alias “Frigate,” and again in the “Fancy,” with Low’s late quartermaster, Francis Farrington Spriggs. In the spring of 1723, Low went to the island of Roatan, in the Bay of Honduras, to clean and refit his fleet. Roatan lies in the latitude of 16° 31’ and is about thirty miles long. On March 9, 1723, while there, Ashton went ashore with the cooper and others for water and managed to escape and after five days Low and Spriggs sailed away without him. Ashton remained alone on the island, except for three days, until June, 1724, when he was joined by eighteen Bay men, seeking shelter from the Spaniards, who took him with them to the Island of Barbarat. Ashton then made several hunting trips to the island of Bonaco and in the spring of 1725 was found there by Captain Dove, the master of a Salem brigantine, who came in over the shoals for water. They sailed for Salem on March 31st, and Ashton arrived home May, 1725, having been absent almost three years. The New England Courant announced his return soon after as follows:—
“Boston, May 10. We hear from Salem, that a Vessel arrived there from the Bay [of Honduras] has brought a Man who was taken by Low the Pirate some Years since, and ran away from him when he went ashore at a Maroon Island to take in Water, where he had been above two Years, when some of this Vessel’s Company going on Shore brought him off.”
Shortly after Ashton’s return to Marblehead, Roads, the historian of Marblehead, says the next Sunday, which would have been the day after his return, the Rev. John Barnard, pastor of the First Church, preached a sermon on “God’s Ability to Save His People from All Danger,” using for his text Daniel III, 17.[130]
Philip Ashton[131] and his parents were present and the sermon closed with a personal address to him.
Public interest having been aroused in the local Robinson Crusoe, who, indeed, had gone Alexander Selkirk one better, having landed on an uninhabited island wearing only a frock, trousers and cap, without a shirt or shoes, stockings, knife or other iron instrument, or any means of making a fire, and who had lived there nine months without fire or cooked food, there was naturally a demand for an account of his adventures. This was met by Mr. Barnard, who, on Aug. 3d, 1725, writing from Marblehead, says:—
“The great Reason why this Narrative, which has been so long wished for, has no sooner appeared, is because Mr. Ashton has necessarily been so absent, that I have not been able to get the opportunity of Conferring with him, more than two or three times, about the Remarkable Occurrences he has met with; and having no leisure himself to write, I have taken the Minutes of all from his own Mouth, and after I had put them together, I have improved the first vacant Hour, I could, to Read it over distinctly to him, that he might Correct the Errors, that might arise from my misunderstanding his Report. Thus corrected, he has set his Hand to it as his own History.
“I have added to a short Account of Mr. Nicholas Merritt, (who was taken at the same time with Mr. Ashton), the manner of his Escape from the Pirates, and the hard usage he met with upon it, till his return to his own Country; which I had from his own Mouth, all tending to the same end and purpose.”
The narrative was soon published under the following title:—
“Ashton’s Memorial. / An / History / of the / Strange Adventures, / and / Signal Deliverances, / of / Mr. Philip Ashton, / Who, after he had made his Escape from the Pirates, liv’d alone on a Desolate / Island for about Sixteen Months, &c. / With A Short Account of Mr. Nicholas Merritt, / who was taken at the same time. / To which is added / A Sermon on Dan. 3. 17. / By John Barnard V. D. M. / We should not trust in our selves, but in God; / —who delivered us from so great a Death, and doth deliver; in whom we trust, that he will yet deliver us. / 11. Cor. 9. 10. / Boston, N. E. Printed for Samuel Gerrish, at his Shop in Corn-Hill, 1725.”