The name of Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon when mentioned by Huguenot writers is usually accompanied by expressions of contempt and intense hatred. He has been called “the Cain of South America” and “a true savage among savages,” while Theodore Beza with more elaborate animosity has described him as “a man distinctly resembling the Cyclops Polyphemus both in the vast mass of his body and the ferocity of his nature.” The object of these execrations was born about the year 1510 in Provins, a French town some fifty miles to the southeast of Paris, where his father, Louis Durand, held an honorable position under the government.