VILLEGAIGNON, or VILLEGAGNON, Nicolas Durand (veel-gan-youg), Chevalier de, French naval officer, born in the castle of Villegaignon, Seine et Marne, in 1510; died in Beauvais, near Nemours, 9 January, 1571. In 1531 he entered the Order of Saint John, of which his uncle, the Marquis Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, was grand-master. He served against the Turks, Algiers, and Tripoli, and was made vice-admiral of Brittany. It has been asserted that he was then converted to the Reformed faith; but this is denied. In 1555 he obtained through Admiral Gaspard de Col]gny the privilege of founding a French colony in Brazil as an asylum for the persecuted Huguenots, while he persuaded the king that the Spanish forces would thus be divided. On 12 July, 1555, he sailed from Havre with two ships, carrying a nearly equal number of Protestant and Roman Catholic emigrants, several young volunteers of noble families, and four Roman Catholic priests. On 13 November he anchored in the Bay of Rio de Janeiro and took possession of an island near the shore, which he named Coligny island. Ire built a fort and opened negotiations with the Indians, who continued friendly to the last. A convoy of emigrants arrived on 10 March, 1557, among them four Protestant ministers, and Jean de Lery. Religious controversies began, and Villegaignon finally forbade the Protestants to celebrate divine service according to John Calvin's teachings. Some of them re-embarked on 4 January, 1558, and Villegaignon, fearing for his safety, transported the remaining Protestants to remote parts of the Brazilian coast. The colony being thus reduced to about 200 men, he sailed for France early in 1559 for the purpose of collecting re-enforcements, and take the command of a fleet that had been promised by Coligny, with which he intended to capture the Spanish treasure vessels and destroy the Portuguese settlements along the Brazilian coast. But the French Protestants refused their support, charging him with treason to their cause, and named him the " Cain of America." His former relations with them procured him likewise a cool reception at court, and he retired to his commandery. Villegaignon's colony subsisted for a few years longer, but, being abandoned by the government, the French were finally expelled, 20 January, 1567, by Men de Saa (q. v.). Villegaignon was reputed one of the most skilful navigators of the 16th century, and he acquired distinction also as a historian and in his theological controversies with Calvin about his interference in religious matters in South America. His works include " Caroli V. imp. expeditio in Africam et Algieram" (Paris, 1542) ; "De bello melitensi et ejus eventu Francis imposito, ad Carolum V. commentarius" (1553); and "Ad Articulos Calvinianae, de sacramento Eucharistiae, traditionis, ab ejus ministris in Francia Antarctia evulgatae responsiones," which contains a relation of the foundation of the French colony in Brazil (1560).