Beautiful as this country always appears to an European eye, it has perhaps no scene so strikingly splendid and picturesque as that which presents itself within this Bay. The rich and novel peculiarity of the landscape is contrasted with the handsome buildings of the town, rising amphitheatrically round the harbour; and these again derive a curious effect from the tall and slender palm-trees, which, thickly interspersed among them, throw their strongly defined and waving shadows upon the white surface of the contiguous houses; and the whole is crowned by the numerous convents which are seen above the town, in the distance, clinging like swallows'-nests, to the precipitous sides of the mountains. We had hardly reefed our sails, when the Russian Vice-Consul, Von Kielchen, and an officer of the Brazilian government, came on board to congratulate us on our arrival. The latter acquainted me with the order of his Government, that every ship of war coming in should salute the fortress with one-and-twenty guns; and in order to remove all doubt that the compliment was designed for the Brazilian flag, he had brought one which, during the salute, he requested us to hoist at the fore-mast. New and unprecedented as this order was, from a state not yet acknowledged by our government, I determined, rather than risk any disagreement, to comply with it; and having fired the one-and-twenty guns, received from the fortress a similar number in return. Being very anxious not to lose the favourable season for doubling Cape Horn, I urged the Vice-Consul to expedite as much as possible the delivery of provisions and other necessaries to the ship; for this purpose, however, a delay of four weeks was required, and this time I determined to employ in astronomical observations. M. Von Kielchen procured me for this purpose a convenient country-house, situated on the romantic little bay of Botafogo, of which I took possession on the following day, accompanied by our astronomer, M. Preus; leaving the care of the ship to my officers. In the supposition that the history of Brazil may not be familiar to every reader, male and female,--for I hope to have many of the latter,--I will preface the narration of my residence here with the following notices. This great empire in South America, called Brazil, from a wood which grows there in great abundance, resembling in colour a red-hot coal, (in the Portuguese "_Brasa_,") is one of the richest and most fertile countries in the world. It was accidentally discovered in the year 1500, by a Portuguese named Cabral, who with a fleet bound for the East Indies, was thrown on these shores. The riches of the country being at first unknown, it was used as a place of banishment for criminals; but subsequently, when the convicts began to cultivate the sugar-cane, and the gold and diamond mines were discovered, Brazil acquired a higher value in the eyes of the Portuguese government.