Fernando Lopes

Fernando Lopes (??-1530) was the first permanent resident of Saint Helena, having been marooned there. He is commonly believed to have been a Portuguese nobleman, but some scholars assert that he was an African slave.

In Portuguese service

Lopes accompanied Alfonso de Albuquerque on his first voyage to Goa in India in 1503. Albuquerque sailed for Portugal shortly after his arrival, in order to secure reinforcements, but he left a garrison behind to keep the peace, with Lopes as the commander. In the two years that elapsed before Albuquerque's return, discipline at the garrison fell apart. The men mingled with the Indians; some of them took wives from among the locals, and some converted to Islam. On his return, Albuquerque was quite disappointed and decided to punish the men of the garrison. He gave them a promise of lenience, and they surrendered to him willingly. He then tortured them so savagely that half of them died within three days. Fernando Lopes, as a nobleman and the leader of the group, received the harshest punishment. He was bound with ropes to two wooden posts, and Albuquerque's men severed his nose, ears, right arm, and left thumb (according to others, his index and middle fingers as well), and plucked all of his facial hair. All of the men were then released, and fled to the jungless where they could hide their deformities and be left alone. Albuquerque had been made Governor by the king of Portugal, but he died in 1515. His replacement allowed Lopes to book passage on a ship bound for the mother country. The voyage passed by the North Atlantic island of Saint Helena. Lopes’s ship stopped at Saint Helena for food and water. When the sailors were making ready to leave, they discovered that Fernando Lopes was not in evidence. After a search of the island proved unsuccessful, they sailed without him, but left a barrel of biscuits, some dried meat, a tinderbox and a saucepan.

Marooned on St. Helena

At the time, Saint Helena was a very fertile place, full of trees and grasses, along with goats and birds, but had many barren plains. Although it did rain very frequently and the wind was biting, the weather was very mild. Lopes acclimated himself to his new home. Nearly a year passed before another ship docked at Saint Helena. The following is from a contemporary account of the first ship to encounter Lopes after he had been left on Saint Helena, found in the Hakylut Society journal: "''The crew was amazed when they saw the grotto and the straw bed on which he slept...and when they saw the clothing they agreed it must be a Portuguese man. ''So they took in their water and did not meddle with anything, but left biscuits and cheeses and things to eat and a letter telling him not to hide himself the next time a ship came to the island for no one would harm him. Then the ship set off, and as she was spreading her sails a cockerel fell overboard and the waves carried it to the shore and Lopes caught it and fed it with some rice which they had left behind for him." The cockerel that Lopes saved from the ship became his only friend on the island. During the night, it roosted above his head and during the day it followed behind him, and would come if he called to it. As time went on, Lopes began to be less and less afraid of people. When a ship would lay anchor in Jamestown Harbour, Lopes would greet the sailors, talking to them as they came ashore. Lopes began to be considered a saint, because of his deformities and the fact that he would not leave St. Helena for any reason. Many people thought him to be the epitome of human suffering and alienation, and they took pity on him. The travelers who went to St. Helena gave Lopes many things, animals, livestock, and seeds. Eventually, Lopes became a gardener and a keeper of livestock. The soil of Saint Helena at the time was rich (much of Saint Helena was depleted during the 18th and 19th centuries because of overplanting of sugar cane and the overgrazing of livestock), due to the island's volcanic origins. This is not to imply that life was easy on St. Helena, because as stated above, much of the island was barren and windswept. Lopes began to work the soil of Saint Helena, planting fruit trees, grasses and many other forms of vegetation. In a few years, the island was fully covered in trees where once there had been only a few, all thanks to Lopes. Eventually Lopes returned to Portugal to see his family and then visited the Pope in Rome, for his final absolution. The Pope was very impressed with Lopes, and decided to grant him a single wish. Lopes had one desire, and that was to return to his home on St. Helena. Lopes returned there, never to leave again, dying in 1530. Lopes was buried on the island of St. Helena and remains there today.