On the Aborigines of Brazil. 17 



for in counting the number of years that have passed since 

 any particular event, these people (who may be considered 

 in some degree to be living without any time,) are never 

 consistent with themselves. They mark the change of 

 years, chiefly by the ripeness of particular fruits, for instance, 

 of the chesnut (Bertholletia excelsa) along the course of 

 the Amazon ; but their accounts of the changes are almost 

 always very imperfect and indefinite. During my travels 

 in the neighbourhood of the Amazon, I made use as points 

 for fixing my dates, of various expeditions made by the Por- 

 tuguese, the journey of Governor Mendon9a Furtado, (from 

 1753 to 1755,) the circuit of the judge Ribeiro de Sampayo, 

 (from 1774 to 1775,) that of Bishop Brandao (in the years 

 1784*87 and 88,) and the last expedition for settling the 

 boundary (from 1781 to 1791). The appearance among 

 them at those periods of numerous Europeans, was a circum- 

 stance never to be forgotten by the Indians, and I have often 

 had cause to wonder at the accuracy with which they 

 remember many individuals and occurrences of those times. 

 The first of those expeditions, which had been made 65 

 years before, was described to me by an aged Indian in 

 Ega, who had served as guide to it, and who told me, that 

 even at that time he had grandchildren. He must have 

 been certainly 105 years old, yet all his senses were unim- 

 paired, he had still many teeth, his hair was not white, but 

 only grey, and his walk was firm and upright. This Indian 

 was the only instance of so advanced an age that I fell in 

 with.* Among hundreds of Indians, whom I have often 

 seen collected on the Rio Jupura, very few were distin- 

 guished by completely grey hair, and I may say, that com- 

 paratively few men exceeded their sixtieth year. The 

 cause of this is not to be found in any early failure of the 



* Von Humboldt mentions the death of an Indian at Lima aged 143 years, who 

 had been married for 90 years to a woman aged 1 17 at the time of his death. The 

 story however will, like many of the sort, be regarded by most people, as apocry- 

 phal.— Tr. 



D 



