People who have no Idea of a^Stij)reme Power. 2S3 



Brazilian Indians were entirely without religion. Burmeister con- 

 firms this statement, and, in the list of the principal tribes of the 

 valley of the Amazons, published by the Hakluyt Society, the Chun* 

 chos are stated 'to have no religion whatever,' and we are told that 

 the Curetus ' have no idea of a Supreme Being.' The Toupinamhas 

 of Brazil had no religion. The South American Indians of the Gran 

 Chaco are said by the missionaries to have ' no religion or idolatrous 

 belief or worship whatever ; neither do they possess any idea of God, 

 or of a Supreme Being. They make no distinction between right and 

 wrong, and have, therefore, neither fear nor hope of any present or 

 future punishment or reward, nor any mysterious terror of ^ome 

 supernatural power, whom they might seek to assuage by sacrifices or 

 superstitious rites.' Bates tells us 'that none of the tribes on the 

 upper Amazons have any idea of a Supreme Beiilg, and consequently 

 have no word to express it in their languages.' Azara also makes the 

 same statement, as regards many of the South American tribes 

 visited by him. 



" Father Baegert, who lived as a missionary among the Indians of 

 California for seventeen years, affirms that ' idols, temples, religious 

 worship, or ceremonies, were unknown to them, and they neither be- 

 lieved in the true and only God, nor adored false deities,' aud M. de la 

 Perouse also says that they ' had no knowledge of a God, or of a 

 future state.' Colden, who had ample means of judging, assures us 

 that the celebrated ' five nations,' of Canada, ' had no public worship, 

 nor any word for God,' and Hearne, who lived among the North 

 American Indians for years, and was perfectly acquainted with their 

 habits and language, says the same of some tribes on Hudson's Bay. 



In the voyage of the Astrolabe, it is stated that the natives of the 

 Samoan and Solomon Islands, in the Pacific, had no religion, and in 

 the voyage of the Novara, the same is said of the Caroline Islanders. 

 The Samoans, have neither moraes, nor temples, nor altars, nor 

 offerings, and consequently none of the sanguinary rites observed at 

 the other groups. In consequence of this the Samoans were considered 

 an impious race, and their impiety became proverbial with the people 

 of Rarotonga, for, when upbraiding a person who neglected the wor- 

 ship of the gods, they would call him "a godless Samoan." On 

 Damood Island, between Australia and New Guinea, Jukes could find 

 no "traces of any religious belief or observance." DuradaAvan, a 

 Sepoy, who lived sometime with the Andaman Islanders, maintained 

 that they had no religion, and Dr. Mouatt believes his statements to be 

 correct. Some of the Australian tribes also are said to have no religion. 

 In the Pellew Islands, Wilson found no religious buildings, nor any 

 sign of religion. 



