_14th_.--I observed on the beach to-day a line of red sandy-looking matter, extending all along the shore, and tinging the sea for several feet from the edge. At night this red edge became luminous; and I now recollect when on the passage to India in 1809, that on observing a peculiar luminous appearance of the sea, we took up a bucket of water, and on examining it next morning, we observed a similar red grainy substance floating in it. It is the first time I have seen it here, and I cannot find that any body has paid any attention to it. Perhaps it is not worth noticing; but I am so much alone, that I have grown more and more alive to all the appearances of inanimate nature. Besides, I must make much of the country, as in a few days I have to take up my abode in one of the narrow close streets of Rio; and this not from choice. It is the custom here, and a very natural and pleasant one it is, for every family that can, to live in the country all the summer: so that the houses of every kind, in the country, are in great request. The term for which that I live in was hired is expired, and I am therefore obliged to leave it. My going to town, perhaps, might be avoided, but there are some things I shall probably learn more perfectly by living there; and, besides, does not Lord Bacon advise that in order to profit much from travel, one should not only move from city to city, "but change his lodgings from one end and part of the city to another?" The last fortnight has been extremely foggy, and rather cold; and we have had some fierce thunder-storms, that seem almost to rock the mountains, and threaten to bring them down upon us. _16th_.--At length I am fixed in No. 79., Rua dos Pescadores, in the first floor of an excellent house, belonging to my kind friend Dr. Dickson, who himself inhabits a villa out of town; where he has a farm, a garden, a collection of minerals and insects, and all sorts of agreeable and profitable things, which he dispenses to others with the greatest good-nature. I am obliged to Sir Thomas Hardy for a pleasant passage to town from Botafogo, his carriage conveying me, and his boats my goods: so in a few hours I have changed my home, and have probably taken my leave of all English society, every body has such a dread of the heat of the town. However, as I look forward to going to England in a few months, perhaps in a few weeks, the more time I have for Brazil the better. My private affairs have so occupied me that I have scarcely had time to think of the public. Yet in the course of the last week the project of the constitution for Brazil, framed by the committee appointed, was sent from the Assembly to the Emperor; and yesterday the discussion of it, article by article, began in the full assembly.