23 Annex 23 – Evidence of the Chinese Fleets visiting California

Annex  23 – Evidence of the Chinese Fleets visiting California

1. Maps
· California is accurately depicted on the Waldseemueller map (1507) drawn before the first Europeans reached that coast.

2. Chinese Records and Claims
Further research needed

3.  Accounts of Contemporary European Historians and Explorers

· Antonio Galvão reports Chinese claims to be ‘lords’ of the Pacific coast of America.
· Stephen Powers describes a Chinese colony between the Russian and Sacramento Rivers.
· Drake chased a Chinese junk.
· Father Luis Sales OP finds Chinese colony at Santa Barbara 1772-1790.
· Gregorio Garcia – El Reino de Anian – Chinese came to Pacific coast pre Europeans
· Cabrillo/Bartholemew Ferreiro, Nave de Cataio, ship of China wrecked at Oregon
· Le Page du Pratz describes Chinese junks loading slaves in 1720s
· Friar Luco – report (1573) of large white ships with square sails arriving from Mexico (Culican).
· Chinese in Barstow California from 1100 A.D – Silver mines dug by ancient Chinese at a site near Barstow, as well as what could possibly be Chinese petroglyphs. These Chinese were tall (7 feet) and many spoke, or at least wrote Latin.  Only the tall were permitted to have wives.  They were Catholic Christians.  They wrote by scratching on the desert varnish with seashells and the dates were translated from Latin.  An orphan that was brought up by Jesuits and taught Latin shorthand translated these writings to English in the 1940s and we have a copy. Father Azura de Amata, a third order Franciscan who traveled with the Chinese, provided much of the history that was scratched into the desert varnish. It appears that the settlement began in 1102 (according to Amata’s history).  There are some writings from 1222. It appears that Tenachee Matikki was also there before Columbus in 1466. The Chinese returned in 1530 – a Ling Foo Ming. The last writings are from 1910 mentioning Arch-Bishop Aloysius Stanislaus, 3rd Rev. We will begin a diligent search for definitive proof of the Chinese community that started in 1102 A.D. in one month – Bob Cribbs
· A reader, anon, talks of Donald Cutter’s The California Coast. At the end, Document 19, there is mention of a journal by Father Crespi about a Spanish sailing ship going up the California coast, trying to land to get water in the vicinity of Monterey. The ship was stuck offshore due to unfavourable breezes and poor visibility caused by fog. The journal, written in 1774, on dates July 20-22, gives a lengthy description of people who canoed over to the ship. Among other things mentioned, these people wore copper and iron rings. Their hats were conical, and brimmed. They brought fine woven mats like those the sailors had seen in China and the Philippines over to the ship and some of them had beards.

4. Accounts of Local People

· Shastika tribe knew of horses ‘sa-to-watts’ before Spanish (J McBride).
· Local tradition among the Yuroks of northern California – they say that “our people have been here for centuries. We were here before the Chinese came.”
· Chinese people were there in the Klamath River area of Northern California well before the white people came. (George Ellis)
· San Francisco Chinese can trace ancestry to before Europeans (R Ohlsen)
· Founder of LA was a Chinese (Sylia).
· “Dragon ships before Columbus” – (Theodore Bainbridge).

5. Linguistics

· Similarity between Gallinomero (people of Russian River) words and phrases and Chinese.
· Similarity between Concow people of Chico words and phases with Chinese. 4. Shastika tribe already know of horses (very small) ‘sa-to-wats’ before arrival of Spaniards (J P McBride).
· Navajo elders understand Chinese (Jim Tanner and John Ting)
· Zuni understand Japanese (Jim Tanner and Nancy Yaw Davis).
Similarities between Zuni and Jomon of Japan (F Lizuka)
· Lake Tahoe. “Ta Ho” is Chinese for “Big Lake.” (Jeff Spira and KK Tan)
· Native American people of the Klamath River region can still identify Chinese words and intonations (Michael Pincus)
· Yosemite   – Yo Se Mi Te taken together in Chinese means magnificent mountain, beautiful place. It’s now a national park in Northern California;
Suisan Bay – Sui is water & San is hill; taken together Suisan is ‘Water & Hill Bay’. Located in Northern California near Sacramento – Ben Young
· On the arrival of the Europeans to the east coast of American they heard the local Indians speak of ‘moccocine’ being the skin stiched foot wear.  The Mongolian word for their foot wear is ‘managocine’ which translated into English means “ Our foot wear” (Dorsha Unkow)
· Our attention was drawn by one reader to the following extract:
“… The Tartar Chinese speak the dialect of the Apaches. The Apaches bear a striking resemblance to the Tartar. In about the year 1885, W. B. Horton, who had served as County Superintendent of Schools, at Tucson, was appointed Post Trader at Camp Apache, and went to San Francisco to purchase his stock, where he hired a Chinese cook. His kitchen adjoined his sleeping apartment, and one evening while in his room he heard in the kitchen some Indians talking. Wondering what they were doing there at that hour of the night, he opened the door and found his cook conversing with an Apache. He asked his cook where he had acquired the Indian language. The cook said: “He speak all same me. I Tartar Chinese; he speak same me, little different, not much.” At Williams, in Navajo County, is another Tartar Chinaman, Gee Jim, who converses freely with the Apaches in his native language. From these facts it would seem that the Apache is of Tartar origin. From the fact that the Apache language was practically the same as that of the Tartar Chinese, colour is given to the theory advanced by Bancroft in his “Native Races,” Volume 5, p. 33, et seq., that Western America was “originally peopled by the Chinese, or, at least, that the greater part of the new world civilization may be attributed to these people…” Reference Source: The University of Arizona Library “Books of the South West” Chapter 1, Indians of Arizona:
http://southwest.library.arizona.edu/hav7/body.1_div.1.html

8. Pre-Columbian Chinese Jade found in the wake of the Chinese Fleet
Further research needed

9. Artefacts, gems, votive offerings, coins and funerary urns

Artefact found on beach in San Clemente, embedded in the sandstone cliff with a portion exposed.  Carbon testing could not get an exact date but the item was deemed to be very ancient. There are Mesoamerican type markings (square spiral) and a Demon/Deity face with slanted eyes and a wide grin – it appear to have been cast in three parts (3 cast lines 3 faces etc.) from a Bronze alloy – Haze B. Robinson III
The markings on a bronze artifact found in San Clemente, C.A. look similar to some marking patterns for bronze artifacts of the Shang Dynasty in China. (KC Mak)

10. Stone: Walls/ Engravings

· Professor Fryer describes Chinese as the builders of the stone walls on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay (Clayton Roberts, Andy Asp) For more information please visit this link: http://www.forteantimes.com/exclusive/caliwalls.shtml.
· Further investigation of the strange Californian walls – these walls are all up and down the hills behind the East Bay going from San Jose all the way to the Carquinez Straits They also continue north over by Sonoma mountain up through the wine country. The walls form neither animal pens nor do they appear to be fort-like, but, if must be said, resemble a mini version of the wall of China! We have looked at the original land records of the Spanish land owners (Peralta, Vallejo, etc) and found they lay no claim to having built them. In fact they asked the local “Indians” about them and the tribes there said the walls were there when they got there. The standard story is that the walls got built by the original white settlers in this area to clear fields for grazing and farming. These walls run in the most impractical of places as well as along some of the hill tops. Some run up ravines you can hardly walk up, let alone build a wall on! – Ed Criss
· Chinese carved stone (Steve Elkins) – raised ink characters.
· Carved stone about 6″ long, scaled down copy of the Easter Island statues found in California. The owner, Dr. Archibald Rutledge, says it was made from a type of stone indigenous to China. (Charles F. Marschner)
· Susanville – on side of canyon by railroad there were seen several large “runic” inscriptions running across the canyon wall.  They were all parallel to each other and extended for about 1/4 mile or so. There was also a concrete ditch running down the centre of the canyon.  It was obviously man-made. (Roberta Palmer)

· The book “Shipwrecks,Smugglers and Maritime Mysteries” (ISBN0-934793-03-4) by Wheeler and Kallman, page 6 states: “After discovering Chumas Indian drawings of Chinese junks in caves along the coast, some historians think the Chinese may have visited the Santa Barbara Channel before the Spanish did.” (Russ Taylor)

11. Mining Operations found by the Europeans when they reached the New World
       Further research needed

12. Advanced Technologies found by first Europeans on their arrival
· Miners who came before the Concow Maidu; mystery of Kokoni charms (Donald Jewell)

13. Plants found indigenous to another continent

· Chinese roses and hibiscus (Rosa sinensis) found by first Europeans (Dr Tan Koolin).
· Maize exported to China before Columbus set sail
· Monterey Pines (indigenous to China (Bruce Tickell Taylor, Sandy Lydon).
· Californian sequia 600 years old found in China
· The Torrey Pine – this tree that grows in the San Diego area, CA, also, grows on a Santa Rosa Island off the coast of California and in China.
· Everyone knows that the China Rose we call ‘Old Blush’ has been grown for centuries in California.  It has been supposed that it was brought to the Spanish missions by Chinese traders. However, there is another Chinese rose, ‘Chi Long Han Zhu,’ (‘White Pearl in Red Dragon’s Mouth’) which was only imported from China in the last few years of the 20th Century. ‘Chi Long Han Zhu’ is now obtainable from several sources in the United States. It was NOT known in the United States prior to its 20th-Century importation from China. HOWEVER, the very knowledgeable Horticulturist Fred Boutin has found what appears to be ‘Chi Long Han Zhu’ growing as a feral plant in the Sierra Foothills of California – Jeri Jennings

14. Animals found indigenous to another continent

· Chinese chickens, which cannot fly or swim, found by first Europeans (Acosta).
· Turkeys exported to China before Columbus set sail.
· Shastika tribe knew of horses ‘sa-to-watts’ before Spanish (J McBride).
· The changes in appearance, as shown in art, in both Chinese horses and native western North American horses could be used as further evidence to support the presence of early Chinese in North America. The so-called “leopard spot” Appaloosa horse is commonly thought to be of North American provenance – however, this horse with distinctive color pattern and body shape is also shown in Chinese art thousands of years old and the same horse also appears in early European art. (Miss Jan)

15. Art: Stone/ Bronze

· Chinese stone sculpture (C Marschner).
· Early Ming bronze plate buried at Susanville (A D Palmer)

16. Chinese Customs, Games, Clothes and Legends

· Same method of burying the dead in an upright position observed by Gallinomero-speaking people of lower Russian River.
· The same festivals of burning paper observed by the Concow people and Chinese (refer to para 16).
· Shastika tribe knew of horses ‘sa-to-watts’ before Spanish (J McBride)
· Miners who came before the Concow Maidu; mystery of Kokoni charms (Donald Jewell)

17. Armour, metal weapons, cannons and implements found
Further research needed

18. Diseases of Indian peoples otherwise found in China and S E Asia

· Hookworm
· Roundworm

19. DNA
· Chinese DNA of Navajo and Zuni peoples (Professor Novick and colleagues).

20. Meteorological events and weather
Further research needed

21. Stars and Navigation
Further research needed

View map: The Waldseemüller map