In the late eighteenth century Portugal created an intense effort to research colonies through Philosophical Travels. In this paper we propose to analyze the performance of the travelers on the Portuguese World - the Kingdom and the colonies in America, Africa and Asia. We analyze the creation of the perception and experience of travelers in two distinct political moments by the administration of Ministers of the Navy and Overseas Dominions - Martinho de Melo e Castro (1777-1795) and D. Rodrigo de Souza Coutinho (1796-1808). We analyze the travels circumstantially, evaluating how the trips were conditioned by the dynamics of the Portuguese empire built over the colonization process. During the two ministries were created conditions of mobility or fixity of the travelers on the Portuguese World who determined the complexity involved in field work in each period. We analyze the continuities and discontinuities between the two moments, through the creation of four distinct groups of travels. At first we analyze the performance of the naturalists who returned to Lisbon at the end of his voyages to the colonies and assumed administrative positions in important Portuguese scientific institutions to direct new naturalists in travels. The second group is characterized by fixity of travelers who stayed at the same area after the exchange of ministry, which provided more detailed observations of the places. Mobility is characteristic of the third group of travelers who explored new regions of the Portuguese Empire. Finally, the last group will feature perceptions completely new, since they left Lisbon towards the colonies for the first time. We analyzed the extensive documentation of texts and images created during the process to perceive the distinctions between the groups. We constructed detailed everyday routine of travelers to evaluate the complexity involved in field practices and the creation of new benchmarks of observation and interpretation in the period. The perception and the performance of naturalists are distinguished by expertise in distinct geographical and geological environments along the Portuguese World. Aspects such as topography, climate, hydrography and vegetation determined the routes, practice field, results and records of each trip.