He settled in Oxford where he befriended the president of Magdalen College, Laurence Humfrey and lodged with Richard Hakluyt at Christ Church.
[2] At this time Hakluyt was working closely with Humphrey Gilbert to plan a voyage of exploration and settlement in North America.
Parmenius was excited by the proposed expedition and wrote another long Latin poem, De Navigatione which honored English explorers and hailed Gilbert's plans to found a colony in the New World.
Parmenius was aboard the Swallow, a small frigate that had been engaged in piracy and was subsequently seized by Gilbert and pressed into his service.
On August 29 his ship encountered shallow waters, went aground and quickly broke up in bad weather off the coast of Sable Island.
[3] A companion who survived, Edward Hayes, paid tribute to Parmenius with these words: "Amongst whom was drowned a learned man, an Hungarian, borne in the citie of Buda, called thereof Budaeus, who of pietie and zeale to good attempts, adventured in this action, minding to record in the Latin tongue, the gests and things of our nation, the same being adorned with the eloquent stile of this Orator, and rare Poet of our time.