This essay aims to analyze a series of descriptions from colonial Rio de Janeiro, extracted from travel narratives written by European travelers that passed by this city between the 17th and the 18th centuries. Besides giving the perspective which these visitors left about the city and its inhabitants, this essay brings into discussion the role that the travel reports performed in the construction of the image that the Europeans had about the Brazilians back then and, most of all, the role that they performed afterwards in the construction process of the image that the Brazilians, from the 19th century on, had about themselves and about their countries.