This article aims to present the vision of the Renaissance philosopher Michel de Montaigne about natural law and positive law in the work The Essays where the Tupi- nambás serve as stylistic resource for the author to expose his ideas about nature. In the book, Montaigne devotes a chapter to the Brazilian Indians in order to demonstrate the Europeans distante in relation to natural law and also the impossibility of civilized people to access natural laws. As a result, Montaigne understands that positive law is self -referential, a mere product of art characterized by “mystical foundation of the laws au- thority,” a term that indicates the impossibility of transcendent foundation for the laws.