Who Discovered America? : The Untold History of the Peopling of the Americas (9780062236777) by Menzies Gavin; Hudson Ian

Author:Menzies, Gavin; Hudson, Ian
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780062236777
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-02-17T16:00:00+00:00

THE SUBSTANCE OF LIU GANG’S MAP

Liu Gang’s map provides remarkable information about Zheng He’s voyages. A full rendering of every place-name and the nomenclature of mountains, rivers, bays, inlets, and islands would take a book in itself. I have selected two examples—what is shown on the 1418 map in South America and the position of Australia. Later on we will consider the rivers shown on the North Atlantic coast of North America, as well as Europe. A full summary of what the 1418 map shows is provided on our website.5

The 1418 map shows South America with one apparently unknown river on the southwest coast, together with inscriptions that say in Chinese “Here the people practiced the religion of Paracas” and “Here the people practice human sacrifice.”

I was not familiar with the reference to the Paracas religion, nor with the river of the same name shown on the map in southern Peru. Marcella and I decided to travel to the region in May 2006 to have a look. It was quite easy to narrow the search to that stretch of coast. South American civilizations there are as old as any on the planet. The Caral-Supe civilization is 4,000 years old. For comparision: Chinese civilization is some 3,900 years old; India, 4,600; Egypt, 5,300; Mesopotamia, 5,700; Minoan, 5,000.

The greatest civilizations on this stretch of coast, starting with the Caral, followed by Chavin, were based between the Lambayeque River in the north of Peru and the Pisco River in the south. South of the Pisco River, the coast narrows considerably and north of Lambayeque the Humboldt Current and fish supplies peter out. So this stretch of Peruvian coast was home to the richest civilizations of them all and would have been where the great trading cities existed when Zheng He’s fleets roamed the oceans. We knew this was where we should begin our search.

Peru is awash with evidence of Chinese visitors for the past two thousand years. A list of the principal evidence is found on our website.6 We’ve already discussed the villages with Chinese names in Peru’s Ancash province. The Inca people have East Asian admixture in their blood to such an extent that their DNA profile could almost be called Chinese.7

It is relatively easy to narrow where Zheng He’s fleets would have visited. Peru appears on the Chinese world maps long before the 1418 map was published. Zheng He’s nautical chart also shows Peru. Peru also appears on Diogo Ribeiro’s master chart of the world in 1529. Ribeiro’s map, which was published before the first Europeans, that is, Pizarro’s expedition, reached Peru, describes Peru as “province and cities of Chinese silk.” Assuming that the latitudes on Ribeiro’s map are correct, which they appear to be, it would seem that “the cities of Chinese silk” he describes were between Chan Chan, to the north of Lima, then coming south, Chancay, Pachacamac in the southern suburbs of modern Lima, then Paracas, four hundred miles south of Lima. Records tell us that Chancay suddenly

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