Local peoples descriptions of Chinese or Asiatic peoples who settled amongst them before Europeans arrived and descriptions of their ancestry
(i) Far East and Indian Ocean
Too numerous to include. Widespread intermarriages between Chinese men and local women.
(ii) Africa
Pate – story of giraffe presented in 1416 to Chinese Emperor.
Mauritania – A reader reports visiting a desert community of Arabs on the way to Al Um Quran, Mauritania, where he came across a Chinese craftsman. On enquiry the carpenter said that he was a native of the area, and that his ancestry was Chinese. The man was well versed with local culture and behaviour.
South Africa – In the Western Cape of the tip of Africa there is a race called the “Cape coloreds” which have slit eyes and pale brown almost yellow skin. Could this be African crossed with Chinese? (Nick Steadman).
Monbasa – Professor Robin Pingree tells how south of Mobasa is the small island known as “Wasini.” Apparently this, in Swahili, means ‘people of the China tribe’. There are old Chinese tombs on Wasini, and he reports also coming across an item described as a small 500 year old stone coffin of Chinese origin (for a child) in Gedi, north of Mombasa.
South Africa – Visitors to our website have commented on how Khoi-san people have particularly mongoloid features, as have certain peoples of the Xhosa nation, both of which peoples occupied the southern and eastern parts of South Africa when the Dutch first settled the Cape in the mid-1600s (David Slater)
(iii) North America and Atlantic Coast
– Rhode Island – “great ship-like house firing cannon sailing upriver”.
– Chelmsford and Dighton Rocks – Carvings of foreign ship and shipwreck
– Greenland – Pope’s letter to Bishop of Greenland. (‘Chinese’ DNA of Greenland people)
– Chinese naval landing party landed and murdered (Frank Fitch)
– Cherokees murdered foreign miners near Minay Sotor River ( Scott McLean)
– Cherokees – James Mooney (1861-1921) was one of America’s first anthropologists, and collected many oral history accounts of Native Americans, particularly the Cherokee. One example collected by Mooney tells of a visit to the Cherokee of very tall people from the west: “James Wafford, of the western Cherokee, who was born in Georgia in 1806, says that his grandmother, who must have been born about the middle of the last century, told him that she had heard from the old people that long before her time a party of giants had once come to visit the Cherokee. They were nearly twice as tall as common men, and had their eyes set slanting in their heads, so that the Cherokee called them Tsunil’ Kalu’, “the slant-eyed people,” because they looked like the giant hunter Tsul’ Kalu. They said that these giants lived far away in the direction in which the sun goes down. The Cherokee received them as friends, and they stayed some time, and then returned to their home in the west . . .” Al Cornette
– Barbarians’ ship attacking local people (Pope – 1418)
– Powhatan’s account to Captain John Smith – Ming Ho are not an American people.
Shawnee – Orig. occupied S. Ohio, W. Virginia and Western Pennsylvania – now occupy Carolinas. Old stories about “Star Ships” form the other world and the people who came and shared their medicine. (Carol Williams)
Potomac – People came thither in ships that wear clothes… dwelt in houses and were called Ackanac – China (W M Kleisch; Solving the Mystery, Lee Miller, P.260).
Micmacs – foreign people arrived on “island with trees growing on it” who “taught them how to fish with nets.” Their leader “The Man God Glooscap” came from the East (Rosslyn Chapel.)
Florida (as defined in 17th century) Natchez people – “Ancestors came from East by sea” (Pratz).
Mississippi and Tributaries– Numerous (more than 100) carvings of foreign ships and horses (extinct in -Americas c. 10 000 BC).
North Dakota – Legends among the Mandan Indians near Bismarck of the great ship that sailed up the river (Rev HR Stockert).
Menominee -Dr James P. Scherz interviewed a Menominee Indian named Pamita (Ancient American, Archaeology of the Americas Before Columbus). On asking ‘Did you get the little horses from the Vikings?’ he responded ‘No, from the Chinese…People from across the seas came to visit and we went there to visit’ (Joanna Bergeron).
(iv) North America – Pacific Coast
– Canada – Huron Indians “Very far to the West epicureans without beards came to trade their wool.
– (Loayza) (Cree Ojibwa – ‘Chinese’ DNA).
– Haida – “people sailing from west” (Marius Barbeau ) (R. Hassell); Nu Chal Nuth myth about “visitors from afar” who came before the Europeans (Adrian Lee)
– California – “Ships like great houses” off coast (Navajo, Zuni – ‘Chinese’ DNA).
– Cherokees slaughter strangers with yellow countenances (S. McLean).
– Sonora – “The mode of dress is a cotton shirt reaching to the ankle with a button at the throat and a long cord hanging from it, and the sleeves of the shirts are of equal width from shoulder to waist…”
– California – Local tradition among the Yuroks of northern California – “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)
– St. Lawrence Island – Village of Gambell (old name: Sivouquk) on St. Lawrence Island back in the late 1970’s. At that time there were still several old ladies with the ancient tattoo markings on their faces who recounted legends of “pre-contact” sightings of “white men in long white robes”.
– Whidbey Island, WA, located in Puget Sound – Local lore: Chinese had logged off large tracts of forest, hundreds of years ago (Joel Gerstmann)
– Indian legends tell of yellow-skinned men thus cast ashore and adopted by the tribes, perhaps hundreds of years before the coming of the first white men’s ships. During the 1800s, it is known that many Chinese and Japanese craft wrecked along the Pacific coast, adding credibility to this legend http://www.lostcoast4x4.org/history.htm – (Dick Yarrington)
– The following is a translation of a Chinook Indian legend, “First ship seen by the Clatsop”, narrated by Franz Boas: “… The son of an old woman had died. She wailed for him for a whole year and then she stopped. Now one day she went to Seaside. There she used to stop, and she returned. She returned walking along the beach. She nearly reached Clatsop; now she saw something. She thought it was a whale. When she came near it she saw two spruce trees standing upright on it. She thought “Behold! It is no whale. It is a monster.” She reached the thing that lay there. Now she saw that its outer side was all covered in copper. Ropes were tied to those spruce trees and it was full of iron. Then a bear came out of it. He stood on the thing that lay there. He looked just like a bear, but his face was that of a human being. Then she went home. Now she thought of her son, and cried, saying, “Oh, my son is dead, and the thing about which we heard in tales is on shore.” When she nearly reached the town she continued to cry. [The people said,] “Oh, a person comes crying. Perhaps somebody struck her.” The people made themselves ready. They took their arrows. An old man said, “Listen!”. Then the people listened. Now she said all the time, “Oh, my son is dead, and the thing about which we heard in tales is on shore.” The people said, “What may it be?” They went running to meet her. They said, “What is it?” “Ah, something lies there and it is thus. There are two bears on it, or maybe they are people.” Then the people ran. They reached the thing that lay there. Now the people, or what else thy might be, held two copper kettles in their hands. Now the first one reached there. Another one arrived. Now the persons took their hands to their mouths and gave the people their kettles. They had lids. The men pointed inland and asked for water. Then two people ran inland. They hid themselves behind a log. They returned again and ran to the beach. One man climbed up and entered the thing. He went down into the ship. He looked about in the interior of the ship; it was full of boxes. He found brass buttons in strings half a fathom long. He went out again and called to his relatives, but they had already set fire to the ship. He jumped down. Those two persons had also gone down. It burnt just like fat. Then the Clatsop gathered the iron, the copper, and the brass. Then all the people learned about it…”– This translation appears to provide an insight into pre-Columbian visits to the New World by foreigners with the sophistication to smelt copper and also possible reference to the mylodons and vegetation believed to have been carried by the Chinese fleets. (Catherine Herrold Troeh).
– According to the oral history from the Senaca Indians, the Chinese first landed on what is now the Washington Oregon coast before either the Norse or Columbus got here. Apparently a small craft landed on the west coast during summer months and met the local Indians. The locals were friendly and helped the visitors with their needs. The sailors then apparently returned to China safely because at a later point in time a large naval force arrived in the same coastal area. A fleet returned during the winter months expecting a similar welcome. However the naval party was wiped out in an Indian attack. According to the gentleman, this coastal area was inhabited by a peaceful tribe during the summer, but by the winter, the war-like Crow had descended from the plains due to extreme winter weather in the plains. The Senaca Indian indicated that some tribal members still have helmets, breast armour and other artifacts from that landing. The tribal area for this gentleman is in Minnesota. (Frank Fitch, Elko, NV)
(v) Mexico
– Nayarit legends of Asian ships (Mazatecs – ‘Chinese’ DNA).
– Lienzo of Jacutacato – foreign visitors arriving on horseback.
– Cueva Pintada – foreigners being shot at.
– Yucatan – carvings of horses (6) and possibly elephants (Campeche Maya ‘Chinese’ DNA.)
– Legend of wrecked Chinese junk (Joel Fressa).
– Indian pueblos – Chinese warriors (A. Moya).
– Montezuma – ancestors came by sea from East in company with a mighty lord
(Ranking p. 257-326).
– “They came on floating trees” (Francis Chow – please refer to Micmacs)
– Yucatan Mayas to Bishop Landa – “their ancestors came across the sea from the east”.
– From Peter Tomkins’ Mysteries of the Mexican Pyramids p. 141. Brasseur de Bourbourg – Mayan records of 13 different expeditions which landed on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico before Columbus (Ian Hudson evidence)
Guadelopue
Reader reports that he has met more than one person in mainland Guadeloupe who, when listing all of the origins of their lineage, include “Chinese.” Since there is no current Chinese population in Guadeloupe (the way there is, for instance, an [East] Indian population), it struck his as curious. In the Saintes, locals contradict the guidebooks and say that the Salako are “Chinese;” many say that the Chinese visited their islands at some distant point in the past. (Dov Stucker)
(vi) South America
Peru – Pre-Columbian pictures of Chinese cavalry at Trujillo (Friar Antonio de la Calancha) and at Ayacucho (G. Squier). “Giants came by sea to settle amongst them” (Garcilaso de la Vega/ Pedro Garcia de Leon).
Brazil – paintings of foreign horses (Confins cave).
Patagonia – Anonymous (1440) and Durand (1448) maps describing giants of Patagonia.
Yellow skinned people crossed Pacific before Europeans (S. Arias)
Afghanistan legend (Z. Pradya) Indian ships accompanied Chinese to S. America prior to European voyages
Guarani – Ancestors crossed ocean from a far land to settle in Amazon (M. Garcia).
(vii) Pacific
Fiji – Yasawa Islands, “yellow men visited us”.
Hawaii/Oahu – Menehune legends (M. Armstrong) – are Menehune Chinese?
(viii) Australia
Arnhem Land
– Paintings of men on horseback (Vallard)
– “Honey coloured people” settle, “women in pantaloons, men in long robes”
– Painting of robed strangers (Governor Grey)
– Man being thrown from horse (painting, Glenelg River)
– Drawings of trees, fauna & flora (Rotz)
– Visits of Chinese junks
– A journalist tells us how in the early 1970s he was camped at Ngukurr, in south-western Arnhem Land, Australia, researching Aboriginal ceremonial matters, mythology, and customs. Often as he wandered on horseback with the Aborigines, he noticed circular holes in the ground, surrounded by rubble. When asked about their origin, he was told the holes were dug “long, long time back” at some unknown period when the first ‘mununga’ (devils) invaded their country. They were described as strangely-dressed men with slanted eyes who wandered all over the countryside digging holes, then moving on. The word ‘mununga,’ is now used to describe all non-Aboriginals. Many falsely believe it means ‘white man,’ but the old people always insisted it meant a ‘devil-devil.’ In this same period the writer was shown a place between Urapunga and Nugurr known to Europeans as “Hell’s Gate.” It is a passage through a steep, rocky gorge. It was here, the Aborigines said, that their forefathers attacked the ‘mununga’ with spears and killed some of them. The strangers, they said, always travelled with loaded two-wheeled carts, pulled by strange animals – Bryan Clark
Gympie
Men in stone garments attempt to mine Mount Warning area (J. Green)
Fraser Island – small boats leave big ship (J Green 1862)
Gympie – “culture heroes” sail into Gympie harbour and take away rocks
Dhamuri people – foreigners land to build pyramids (J. Green).
Queensland
– Aboriginals in far west of central Queensland still tell of how many “dreamtimes” ago, strange yellow men came from the south looking for their homeland in the north. They were sick with little food. They were cared for and never seen again when they left for the north. (Brett Green)
– Very old cave drawings found in a cave overhang on Flinders Island off Cape York in Princess Charlotte Bay. To view these please click here.
Sydney-Newcastle area carvings
– Hawkesbury River – visitors in long robes, carvings of foreign ship and funeral of foreign visitors
– Byron Bay – carvings of massacre of foreign sailors
Victoria
– Warrnambool: Yangerry Tribe – yellow people from shipwreck settle among them and created farms
South Australia
– Glenelg River – carvings of foreign sailors.
(ix) New Zealand
North Island
– two large ships preceded Captain Cook (Maori accounts)
– light coloured people settle amongst Maoris and begat children (Maori accounts).
– Zhai Mo from Tai’nan – Shandong aims to show that cultures of the original inhabitants along the Pacific arose from Chinese culture. From his voyage around the islands of the Southern Pacific, he collected many items from local people including totem poles and music. “ We trace our roots to China far, far away,” Zhai Mo said as he repeated the words of Maori chief. “I’ve long dreamed of showing that the cultures of the original inhabitants along the Pacific Ocean arose from the Chinese culture”
South Island
– Waitaha people preceded them (Maori).
(x) Iceland
In a little known Icelandic annal, the “Bjalfaannal”, written in 1700 by Hinrik Bjalfi Jonsson, the following clause is attached to the year 1435:
“In this year many great ships landed at Adalvik [in the Westfjords in the Icelandic north-west] and still more ships lingered off the coast. Some men stepped ashore and filled buckets with water. They were considered demons but I do not know if this is true. Certainly, these men did not look like any of the English or Germans [who were regular visitors to Icelandic shores in these days]. Reverend Bjorn Asgeirsson [a local pastor in Adalvik], who was son of Asgeir sheriff Brundsson and had sailed [abroad, that is] tried talking to them, but to no avail. He said their language sounded like
bird-talk. They went away peacefully.”
– Huldufolk – the hidden people of Iceland – the subject of many folk tales – they are described as small, of darker colouring than white Icelanders and as wearing colourful clothing – were these fairy folk Asians of Zheng He’s Fleets? (Thor Hallgrimsson)
