27 The 1418 map – Zheng He’s fleets visits to Peru

Liu Gang’s 1418 map shows S America where the cartographer has placed one river on the Pacific coast and two descriptions to the effect “The people here practice human sacrifice” and “the people practice the religion of Paracas.”

To find out who were the peoples indulging in human sacrifice, practising the Paracas religion and the identity of the river.

Marcella and Gavin Menzies would visit the Pacific coast of S America for 6 days from 2 – 8 May 2006. This follows 2 previous visits to Peru, 3 to Chile, 2 to Brazil and 1 to Colombia.

Nowhere on earth resembles South America. The Andes Mountains straddle the equator. As the mountains march south they widen and the coastal plain gets narrower and narrower, having started a hundred miles wide in Ecuador, it is only twenty in Chile. Where the mountain massif broadens in the south, a high grassland plateau some 3500 metres high emerges between the peaks. Running westwards from this high Altiplano down to the sea are innumerable small rivers like legs of a centipede. To the east of the Andes stretches a wide, hot, low plain which soaks up moist winds from the Atlantic. As the wet winds spread westwards they deluge the Brazilian forest with rain before dumping the remainder on the Andes which due to the mountains height falls as snow. In spring between September and April the winds freshen. For a brief period snow even reaches the high slopes of the western Andes. When the snow melts in summer water is sent cascading down the ‘centipede’ rivers into the Pacific. Thus starting at the equator and travelling eastwards one encounters an astonishing diversity of climates. First comes the bone dry strip of coast (to be explained later), then the western slopes of the Andes punctuated every thirty miles or so by ‘centipede’ rivers full of water some 3 months of the year, then the high cold grassy plateau ‘the altiplano’ with plenty of rain for a quarter of the year and finally the hot low wet Amazon jungle.

The bone dry desert coast is caused by a combination of the cold Humboldt Current flowing northwards from the Antarctic and a high pressure system far out in the Pacific. It never rains on the coast – there is no word for rain in either the Quechua or Aymara languages. Instead in winter the coast is covered by a fine mist which is burnt off as the sun heats up the land.

As this cold Humboldt Current rises to the surface it brings millions of tons of plankton from its depths. Small fish feed in the plankton, attracting larger fish. These in turn attract sea lions. The water yields 1680 kilograms of fish per hectare almost a thousand times the world average. The most vivid way of seeing this extraordinary richness is by ship (or submarine!) from out in the pacific – the Humboldt Current is delineated by acrobatic displays of huge flocks of seabirds diving into the water to gorge them selves. Millions of these birds nest ashore producing an endless supply of guano fertiliser.

So the people living along the Pacific coast of southern Ecuador, Peru and northern Chile have an endless bounty of fish, mussels, clams, crabs, birds and sea lions for food. Their river valleys were full of water for a quarter of the year and they had plenty of fertiliser. So it is not surprising that this stretch of coast has produced rich human civilisations since the dawn of time. The land had as much to offer as the Nile, the rivers of Mesopotamia, the Ganges or the rivers of China. South American civilisations are hence as old as any on the planet – the Caral Supe civilisation being 5000 years old (Chinese civilisation some 3900 before present: India 4600 years: Egypt 5300: Mesopotamia 5700).

The greatest civilisations of the Pacific coast of S America, starting with Caral followed by Chavin, were based between the Lambayeque River in the north (N Peru) and the Ica River in the south (S Peru). South of the Ica River the coast narrows considerably and north of Lambayeque the Humboldt Current and fish supplies peter out. So Peru was home to the richest civilisation of them all.

Peru is awash with evidence of Chinese visitors for the past 2000 years. A list of the principle evidence is in Appendix I to this memo and the bibliography in Appendix II. There are still 100 villages in the Ancash province of Peru which retain their Chinese names to this day (Appendix III). Inca people have east Asian admixture in their blood to such an extent that their DNA profile could almost be called Chinese (Professor Gabriel Novick and colleagues – see www.gavinmenzies.net, then ‘Evidence’, then ‘Part VII – The Genetic legacy of Zheng He’s fleets’)

The clearest possible evidence can be seen in Lima’s Museo Arqueologico Rafael Larco Herrera which has 45’000 exhibits from graves of the Cupisnique period (1000 BC) through the Moches (400 – 800 AD) and more recent Nasca Chimu and Chanca periods. The curator Mr Claudio Huarache is most helpful. I asked him if there were portraits of Chinese merchants found on pottery from the graves and he immediately showed me beautiful paintings of Chinese from Moche, Chanca and Nasca B graves – spanning in time the past 2000 years and covering the whole coast of Peru north to south. A picture of a Chinese merchant is shown on our website.

Peru appears on the Chinese world maps long before the 1418 map (Hendon Harris map collection) or Zheng He’s nautical Chart (which also shows Peru – see Liu Gang’s ‘Map speaks without words’ on www.gavinmenzies.net). Peru also appears on Diego Riberos master chart of the world 1529. This map shows the coast of Peru in great detail with an inscription which describes Peru as “Province and Cities of Chinese silk.” Ribero’s map was published before Pizarro’s expedition (the first Europeans) got to Peru (Appendix IV). The Waldseemueller map again published before Pizarro reached Peru shows the Andes along the whole length of the S American coast. So it seems abundantly clear Zheng He knew of Peru before he set sail.

He would have visited ports with whom his fleets could trade. We know from the records of the first Spanish chronicles that in the 1420’s the principal trading areas would have been Chan Chan in the north of Peru, then coming south Chancay (N of Lima) Pachacamac in the southern suburbs of modern Lima then Paracas some 250 km south of lima. Chancay suddenly started to mass produce pottery in the 1420’s some of which they called ‘china’, so my first thought was that Chancay was the port (in mediaeval Castilian the name means City of Chinese Silk) Zheng He visited. However, unfortunately the place has been so badly looted that it is impossible to be sure. So we need other clues.

When Liu Gang published the 1418 map I researched Jesuit and Franciscan records to enquire when this religion was first mentioned in European annals. To my surprise there were no records at all. So we drove south to Paracas peninsular which today is a national reserve protected by the Peruvian government. Here is the Julio Tello site museum which provided the answer to the riddle. The Paracas people buried their dead in fantastically rich funerary bundles made of a fabric composed of the local cotton and vicuna wool all dyed with beautiful natural dyes. A photo is on our website. The fabric was first seen on the Lima market in the late XIX century and examined by Max Uhle a German archaeologist, who named it as ‘Early Inca culture.’

In 1925 a Peruvian archaeologist visited the Paracas peninsular and excavated areas named ‘Cerro Colorado’ and Wari Kayan. These were two cemeteries characterised as ‘cavernas’ and ‘necropolis’ styles. Tello realised what he had found was not Ica culture at all but a new culture which he called ‘Paracas’. So Europeans didn’t know of this culture until 1925 yet it appeared as such on Liu Gang’s 1418 map.

To me this could only mean the Paracas peninsular was known to Zheng he. It was therefore at least arguable that the river shown on the 1418 map was one near Paracas. What other cues were there.

This huge pre-Columbian sign has been carved on a hillside on the Paracas peninsular overlooking the ocean. It is visible for some 15 miles out to sea, its provenance and purpose a mystery. We hired a boat and after photographing it proceeded seawards along the line of the candelabra between the Islas Ballestas and Islas Chincha (Chinese islands). It is apparent that the main stem of the ‘candelabra’ is much older than the twirly pieces – the main stem has been eroded by the daily sand storms to a much greater extent and is carved different coloured sand. Stripping out the twirly bits reveals a much older portion, the Chinese character ‘Shan’ (mountain). But mountain of what?

The Islas Ballastas and Islas Chincha provide the answer – Mountains of guano! These islands are black with nesting seabirds who have made the island into white mountains of guano fertiliser. We later flew just to seaward of the islands on a course of 200. Seen from seaward it is difficult to identify which island group is which, a problem exacerbated by the daily mist and afternoon sand storms. To a visiting mariner arriving to collect guano the candelabra sign would tell him he had arrived at the right place and moreover would lead him safely ashore between Islas Blanca and the Ballastas. So by now I felt pretty sure this was a land fall made by Zheng He’s fleets. So we started a search of the nearby rivers to try to establish which was the most likely to be the one shown on Liu Gang’s 1418 map.

To the north is the Canete River, adjacent to the Peninsular the Pisco, and to the south the Ica. The Pisco and Ica rivers and their tributaries are the same shape as the river in Liu Gang’s 1418 map. However when we visited (May 2006) both were dry although their rivers were lush and fertile, they had both received plenty of rain earlier in the year. We travelled up both rivers – The Pisco had once been at least 10 miles wide as one can see from erosion of the cliff banks some 20 miles up river near Tambo Colorado. Tambo Colorado is where the river forks as shown on the 1418 map. So it seems the Pisco River was the most likely candidate. We decided on return to the UK to see what the first Spanish to reach the River Pisco found when they arrived a century after Zheng He’s voyages, described below.

The most complete account is that of Maria Rostworowski de Diez Canseco in her ‘History of the Inca Realm’ Cambridge University Press 1999. After explaining (p69) Chincha is the equivalent of ‘chinchay (Chinese silk) in mediaeval Catalan) she describes Inca Topac Yupanqui’s peaceful conquest of the Chinchas and how they were absorbed into the Inca hierarchy and of the courtesy’s extended first by Topac Yuquanqui to the Chincha leader and then by Huayna Capac and Altahualpa. At p129 Maria Rostworowski describes the lord of Chincha meeting Pizarro in a litter (carriage without wheels) in the same procession as the Emperor Altahualpa – in short the Chincha lord is of similar status to the Inca chief Altahualpa. Altahualpa explains this by saying that the Chincha lord once had 100,000 ships. Bartholome Ruiz describes capturing a Chincha raft at sea laden with goods of great value. Pizarros coat of arms includes a Chinese junk (Seville Museum of the Indis).

There are many parallels between Chincha and Chinese peoples described by Maria Rostworowski. Alone amongst ancient Peruvian peoples, the Chinchas were expert at Astronavigation using the star Cundri. They were very skilled merchants travelling as far north as Ecuador and using a type of copper money as international currency. They were expert silver and gold smiths, Maria describes the legends of Naylamp (further north) who refer to foreigners arriving before the Spanish by sea in fleets of … rafts. These foreigners settled amongst them.

Mrs Rostworowski refers time and again to Chincha as being a rich and prosperous senorio (province) of the Incas, speaking their own language Runi Simi rather than Quechua of the Incas.

As she concludes (p211)

“ Why did Chincha become seafarers and how did they learn skills of navigation. Our present knowledge does not permit a satisfactory answer – perhaps they came into contact with navigators from different places who taught them maritime skills.”

In ‘Prehispanic Cultures of Peru’ the author Justo Caceres Macedo emphasises the importance of Chincha merchants.

“About its [Chincha] origin there is a version according to which outside people [foreigners] conquered the chincha valley with the aid of an oracle called Chinchacama. Population grew very rapidly and due to that neighbouring valleys formed an alliance with Chincha people, who made expeditions to the sierra to the land of the Collas an the shores of lake Titicaca at the time the Incas were founding Cuzco.

“An anonymous manuscript of the 16^th Century assures [us] that dealers used a kind of coin and they “bought and sold in copper”.

Chincha was conquered by the Incas during Topac Yupanqui’s reign and annexed to the empire in 1476 AD. When the Incas peacefully conquered the Chincha they took over the site at Tambo Colorado and added new buildings to it.

Tambo Colorado was an ideal trading site linking the coast with Ayacucho, Abancay and Cusco on the Altiplano. From the Andes came turquoise gold and silver, amethyst and black obsidian and the magnificent vicuna wool, the worlds finest. From the coast came mother of pearl, fish and salt. From the Pisco valley to both the coast and the Altiplano fruit and vegetables – grapes, oranges, bananas, dates, cotton, maize, asparagus and yucca all of which can be seen in valleys today.

The 1418 map says the people of S America practice ritual sacrifice. This is correct. Some 10 years ago the volcano of Abancay erupted splattering hot ash on the near by volcano of Ampato. This melted the snow. Further eruptions threw out of the melted earth a virgin of the sun buried c1440 after ritual sacrifice. She has been named Juanita; her perfectly preserved frozen body can be seen in the deep freeze at Arquipa University. In 2000 her body was taken to Tokyo University for DNA tests and carbon dating. She died c 1440 and hence was conceived c1425. Her DNA has substantial Chinese (Taiwanese) admixture.

GAVIN MENZIES

London

18^th May 2006