J R Euen

A thousand miles up the Amazon J R Euen

In J. Euen's account of a voyage to Manaus in Brazil, a thousand miles up the Amazon River, the readers find themselves in a city in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest. In the late 19th century, Manaus was the centre of the Amazon Rubber Boom, but lost its prominence when seeds of the native rubber trees were smuggled out to South East Asia. During the rubber boom the city of Manaus built a grand opera house with vast domes and gilded balconies, using bricks, marble, glass and crystal from around the world. The Amazon Opera house was constructed in 1896, with materials brought from Europe, glass from France and marble from Italy..