[4] However, far from being hanged for his crimes, Fernandes was released, apparently with the connivance of Queen Elizabeth's spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham, who appears to have been well aware of the Portuguese navigator's potential usefulness in challenging the Spanish trade monopoly in the New World.

[4] The fact was that Fernandes likely had more experience of navigating the Indies than almost any man in England, making him a unique asset to the early English voyages of discovery in the New World.

[2] In 1578, the year following his arrest and release, Fernandes was appointed pilot to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who was planning an expedition to colonise the Americas with the backing of Walsingham.

Asked how this could be, since Fernandez was by now a subject of the Queen, and therefore officially at peace with the Spanish empire, Fernandes replied that he had a "free pardon from five Privy Councillors for carrying on the war with Spain".

He served as master and chief pilot to Raleigh's 1585 expedition to Roanoke,[1] which was led by Sir Richard Grenville, returning to England later that year.

[9] In 1587 the settlers' chosen destination was not Roanoke but the Chesapeake Bay but, on reaching Roanoake in late July, and allowing the colonists to disembark, Fernandes refused to let White's men re-board ship.

According to White's journal, Fernandes' deputy "called to the sailors in the pinesse, charging them not to bring any of the planters back againe, but leave them on the island".

[11] Fernandes's motive for landing the colonists in the wrong spot is not clear, but it may be that he was prompted by his desire (and that of his crew) to return to the West Indies to pursue opportunities for privateering against Spanish shipping.

[12] If Governor White's journal is to be believed, Fernandes' actions appear to have contributed to the poor outcome of the settlement, known to history as the "Lost Colony".