He accompanied them on their journey North to Allumette Island becoming the second white man to travel up the Ottawa River.
Vignau spent the winter on Allumette island with a band of Algonquins led by a one-eyed chief named Tessouat.
There he had seen the wreck of an English ship whose crew of eighty men had escaped to land and been killed by the Natives.
In 1613, they reached Allumette island where Champlain asked Tessouat if he would provide a guide to escort them to the source of the river.
Though Nicolas de Vignau did not discover the Northwest Passage, he may have spoken to some natives that had been as far north as Hudson Bay.