MILES FROM ANYWHERE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 5, 6 January 1934, Page 9 (Supplement)

MILES FROM ANYWHERE.

Which town of the world is the most isolated ? The answer is Man'aos, on the T?io Negro, not far from that mighty tributary's junction with the Amazon. It is the only town of Amazonia, and situated a thousand miles from any other civilisation. Yet with all its isolation it has many up-to-date features —a harbour, electric lifts, a tramway system, an electric power station which lights the town and cooks its food and cools its rooms, a pure water supply, several newspapers, a fine theatre, a museum of coins—but no railway station. From any part of the town the jungle can be reached in a 20 minutes' walk. Alligators are the sole inhabitants of the opposite bank of the river, and jaguars have attacked pedestrians within rifle shot of the tramlines! The view from the cathedral tower is of unbroken forest, yet the town contains a hospitable English colony and an English club. The river is called "Negro" because its waters are black. Where it joins the Amazon a steamer can have its bows in inky water and its stern in the brownish waters of the greatest river in the world.