CUSTOM HOUSE NEGROES. RIO DE JANEIRO.] The human frame will seldom bear, without injury, its transmission to a climate very dissimilar to that to which its birth and previous residence have accustomed it. Thus the English residing here exhibit in their appearance the effects of this tropical climate, and, although they are otherwise in health, there is a debility manifest in their countenances, something resembling the appearance of a person in a state of convalescence after illness. I waited upon Henry Chamberlaine, Esq. the British charge d’affaire, with a letter of introduction from a nobleman, and discovered, at that interview, that my expectations of entering actively upon the functions of a public situation were not likely to be realized; I therefore adopted the determination, to which my mind was pre-disposed, of devoting my time to the acquirement of such intelligence, regarding the vast regions of the Brazil, as circumstances would admit of. Houses of public accommodation may be said scarcely to exist in this city, and are of such inferior order, that strangers are peculiarly fortunate if they are received into the residence of a friend. The liberality and frank hospitality of a merchant, to whom I brought a letter of introduction, relieved me from any inconvenience on this score. Previously to my entering upon a general description of this city, and the several provinces composing the Portuguese possessions in South America, of which it is now the metropolis, it may not be irrelevant to give some account of the first discovery of this widely-extended continent. CHAP. II. _From the First Discovery down to the Arrival of the Royal Family there, and its present Division into Provinces--The general Character of the Indians._