Pierre Richier accompanied Philippe de Corguilleray to Brazil in 1556 at the request of the French soldier and explorer Villegagnon.
After the failure of the expedition, Pierre Richier returned in 1558 to the city of La Rochelle, where his preaching became very influential.
La Rochelle, together with a few other cities such as Sancerre, became the last Protestant strongholds in the French Wars of Religion, following the failure of colonization ventures in the New World which Gaspard de Coligny had been promoting.
[2] In 1561, Pierre Richier published in Genève a pamphlet against Villegagnon's actions in Brazil, entitled "Réfutation des folles resveries, excecrable blasphèmes, erreurs et mensonges de Nicolas Durand, qui se nomme Villagagnon".
In La Rochelle, Pierre Richier virulently preached against the subversion of the January 1562 Edicts of toleration by Charles IX of France and Catherine de' Medici.