Annexes 30, 31, 32 – Evidence of Chinese fleets to Northern Europe – Vice Admiral Chou Wen
General comments
The fleets left what is now called New York in the summer of 1422, an exceptionally hot year, and sailed via Boston to Nova Scotia, Greenland, the Canadian Arctic, North Pole, Iceland, the Azores, SW Ireland, the Outer Hebrides and Shetlands, Scotland, France, Germany, N. Norway and via Siberia to home, through the Bering Straits.
A second fleet reached southern Europe via the Red Sea Nile Canal and the Mediterranean.
This Appendix provides evidence of Zhou Wen’s voyage to N. Europe.
Nova Scotia
· On September 18th 2003 the National Port of Canada reported a lobster fisherman found a very old two tonne anchor in the Northumberland Strait. A scuba diver, Mr le Blanc describes it as 5 metres long, and with 30 cm diameter flukes, that stretched 3 metres from the stock. This can only be a very old Chinese anchor.
· Blue and White porcelain is among the treasure items listed from Oak Island. Could this have come from a treasure fleet? (David Brooks)
Nova Cataia – The Island of the Seven Cities – in which Canadian architect Paul Chiasson describes the chain of events that led him to conclude that Cape Breton Island was settled by Chinese fleets years before John Cabot’s 1497 discovery of the island. The area, referred to by early French explorers as la Tarterie (i.e. “the region of the Chinese”) is abound with the crumbling ruins of a magnificent walled town, and nearby mining and agricultural operations. In addition, Chiasson claims that the language, clothing, religion and legends of the Mi’kmaq people who were indigenous to the region display deep cultural roots from China. Paul’s website can be found at www.islandofsevencities.com A reader has written in describing some ruins in Ontario woodland, close to a pillar carved with Chinese script which we are investigating. The walls apparently seem to be constructed in the fashion of the Chinese walls described in Paul Chiasson’s book (www.islandofsevencities.com ) The ruins are in much better shape than the configuration on Cape Breton island. Most of the walls are intact though obscured by trees. They are not European and not Aboriginal. Other research suggests other early French explorers sought out abandoned metal mines and evidence of much earlier settlement. One report notes an abundance of feral cannabis hemp (not native to the area), and evidence of long departed metal smelting operations. We are also told that here are areas of central Ontario with wild flora that seem to be a mirror of flora of Manchuria. Most of these plants are regarded as rare medicinals in China, but are just curious rare wild plants in Canada – Roddy Heading
Kevin Dougherty writes about “Site of 465-year-old Settlement Unearthed” in the Montreal Gazette, August 19, 2006. From what we understand, an archaeologist was hired to take a look at what was assumed to be the “charred wooden remains” of an early 17th century fort built by Champlain but what he now believes is actually the earlier fort built by Cartier between 1541 and 1543. “Chretien [archaeologist] has dug up more than 150 objects including ceramics, pottery, nails, a ring, glass beads, vessels and an axe. But his most important finds are a blue fragment of 16th -century Italian Faenza ceramic and a shard of Iroquois pottery, dating the site to before Champlain’s arrival. Carbon dating places the site between 1400 and 1430, but the Italian ceramic is a more accurate gauge.” We are obviously interested in the carbon dating result as it seems to tie in with the 1421 theory somewhat!
Accounts of contemporary historians (Nova Scotia)
According to Walsingham’s record of David Ingram’s account of his experiences: Ingram had sailed with John Hawkins in 1567 on Hawkins’ third expedition privateering for Queen Elizabteh (and himself) in the New World. His ships were surprised by a Spanish fleet off Veracruz and lost all but two ships. The survivors were picked up but after a few days Hawkins decided the ships were dangerously overcrowded and he put “some” men ashore on the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico, saying he’d come back for them next year.
What happened to most of them is unknown. Ingram and two others headed north together, convinced they wouldn’t survive where they were. They were trying to get to the NE of mainland America where they probably knew Brit and European ships were exploring and trading. They walked for 11 months through one Indian tribe after another, finally reaching Nova Scotia and a French ship, which took them back to Emgland. Walsingham’s account was included by Hakluyt in his ‘Voyages’, but H. removed it from later editions apparently because he thought Ingram had fabricated some things that were ‘incredible.’ But for 1421 purposes, Ingram’s relevant assertion is made more likely true by Walsingham’s, as you’ll see; and Walsingham’s is supported by a log from one of Coronado’s captains.
At the end of his account Walsingham says that, when Ingram finally reached the sea (the Atlantic), probably not too far from Nova Scotia, Indians there indicated they had seen big ships along that coast; they drew a picture of the outline of the ship. W’ham doesn’t say what the ship looked like, but his next words make it clear. (And remember, the overwhelming interest of the northern European countries at this time was to find a Northwest Passage through to China and the Spice Islands.)
He says that the kind of ship Ingram recognized from the drawing was proof that there actually was a NW Passage, because “It was agreeable to the experience of Vasquez de Coronado, which found a shippe of China…upon the northwest of America.” That is, in the general area where one would expect to find the east end of a NW Passage, the Indian had seen and drawn what Ingram recognized as a Chinese junk. And in 1540, a Spaniard in Coronado’s fleet had seen a Chinese ship about where the west end of the Passage should be. Therefore, according to W’ham’s logic, the Chinese ship spotted on the east coast obviously got there by sailing through the Passage from the west coast, rather than sailing around the world to get there, and the presence of the Chinese ship at about the same latitude on the west coast was just further evidence of the Passage.
For 1421 purposes, it doesn’t establish the presence of Zheng He’s fleet, 100 years earlier, but both indicate that not only were the Chinese familiar with both coasts of the US, but that despite the Emperor’s (or eunuchs’) edict suspending all foreign trade after Zheng He’s voyage, there were still some junks doing some trading in places he or others had found before.
The log that recorded the sighting of the Chinese junk is on page 238 of the paperback edition; Hernando de Alarcon. It may be that Alarcon’s log no longer exists: the citation is by Walsingham, Elizabeth’s ‘Director of Central Intelligence,’ and he had agents buying every voyage account he could, especially Spanish and Portuguese. So he may he saw a document that no longer exists. (Rob Schwab)
Labrador – Hudson Strait and Ungara Bay
Wind and current would have carried fleet north from Nova Scotia to Labrador
· Hudson Strait appears on Vinland Map (c. 1440)
· Beacons similar (nearly identical) to those found on Vancouver Island (BC) and on Outer Hebrides (Scotland) ring Ungara Bay. Longhouses lie beside them. GM contends they are beacons left by Chinese to show the way up the Payne River to ore deposits and/ or to draw attention to Chinese marooned in long houses.
Greenland
· Wind and current (Irminger) would have carried fleet from Atlantic around Greenland clockwise
· Both Greenland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence (where the huge anchor was found) appear on the Vinland map published c. 1440, before Europeans ‘discovered’ America. The Vinland map is genuine (2002 survey & Poincarrí’s seal.) Greenland, Heluland and Mackland also appear on Albertin de Virga’s map (c. 1414 – University of Hawaii.)
· Greenland people have “recently” acquired Chinese DNA – Professor Novick and colleagues.
· Pope’s letter describes barbarian ships destroying local people by fire c. 1418, taking them capture and releasing them later.
· Inuit people are (Yin Uit) people from Yin – China.
· Greenland could have been circumnavigated in 1422 for climate was warmer than today, evidenced by:
· Strontium 90 levels in the ice core of glaciers
· Thickness of teeth enamel in human graves at Hvalsey
· Remains of houseflies in Greenland’s houses.
· An artist was painting in Greenland in the Kangia near Ilullissat on the West Coat. An iceberg overturned, and the tidal wave washed away turf and boulders below their camp, revealing an ancient midden, washing artefacts into rock pools. Readers collected the items which had been disturbed – metal and flint blades and points, glass beads, hand carved octagonal beads of crystal and amber, piles of seal and whale bones and two tiny fragments of Chinese porcelain – Tony Foster
http://www.tony-foster.co.uk
This is further corroborated by:
· Hydraulics department, Delf Technical University, Netherlands 1970 / 71 research climate models of Arctic
“… a series of five consecutive extreme warm climate winters could lead to the complete melting of the ice of the Arctic Sea…”
· Climate research by the climate historian J Buisman (for the Dutch Meteorological Institute KNMI and the European Union)
· “… In North-western Europe the summers of 1420, 1422 and 1424 were extremely dry and hot, which could have a relation to exceptional warm conditions in the Arctic Sea, especially during the summer of 1422…” and “… There were a series of extreme severe winters in the seven years 1432 – 1438 eventually leading to the ‘Small Ice Age’…”
Canadian Arctic – Dorset Island, Ellesmere Island, Bache Peninsular
· On the Bache and Knud Peninsulas of Ellesmere Island there are stone houses that could house several thousand people. They have no rooves – originally probably roofed by timbers from large ships.
· Outside some of these houses are hearths – several hundred in all – denoting industrial usage.
· Beside the houses are an array of metal implements: galvanised iron; chain mail; bronze bowl; bronze pendant; brass balance; lead shot; also found coal from Rhode Island. The people clearly were expert metal workers using Rhode Island coal.
· Oak wood from ships and barrels has been dated to c. 1230 – very late for Vikings.
· Ivory sewing implements and needle cases and chessman of very sophisticated design.
· The Brattahild settlement has cut stones weighing several tons requiring sophisticated and very hard steel saws.
· Stone slipways are far larger than required for Viking longboats.
The North Pole
· The Arctic, north of Greenland, appears on the Vinland map, with topography correct allowing for glaciers.
· The Arctic was navigable in 1422 (NMI Delf Technical Institute; Buismann; European Union.)
· 30 Chinese claims to have reached North Pole (Needham; Professor Wei; Martin Tai)
· Chinese circumpolar charts could only have been drawn by people who had taken altitude and declination of Polar stars north of 73° N
· Polaris was especially important to the Chinese as it was the heavenly equivalent to the Emperor on Earth.
· In 1422 the North Pole, as measured by Polaris at 90° elevation was c. 180 nautical miles N of Greenland – viz less than 2 days sailing.
· J. de Yuan account of the Explorer Dong Fang Shuo reaching North Pole.
· Marco Polo mentioned several unique aspects of geography that could not possibly have been contrived from hearsay or imagination. For example, he mentions in one episode that while travelling towards the North Pole (by compass), he observed that the Pole Star (at the Geographic Pole) appeared to have a southerly bearing. This observation of the discrepancy between the location of the Magnetic North Pole and Polaris could only have been made by a person who had travelled to a point midway between the Geographic Pole and the Magnetic Pole. This is solid proof that Marco Polo had indeed reached the Canadian Arctic. – Dr. Gunnar Thompson. To view Dr. Thompson‘s fascinating research please visit www.marcopolovoyages.com
Iceland
· Iceland appears on the Vinland Map (c.1440.)
· “…The story of a man who had accidentally traversed the globe seems to have struck a chord with Columbus, for when he read that two oriental sailors had been washed up from a shipwreck from the coast of Ireland, he scribbled into the margins of one of his books: ‘Men have come eastwards from Cathay. We have seen many a remarkable thing, and particularly in Galway, in Ireland, two persons hanging on to two wreck planks, a man and a woman…” Extract from Giles Milton, The Riddle and the Knight, (New York, 1996, p. 216.) – Giovanni Bonello
· The Bjalfaanal, an Icelandic annal has this clause attached to 1435, author Hinrik Bjalfi recording in 1700 (the author known to give dates later than they were i.e. 1435 could be 1422).
“… In this year many great ships landed at Adalvik [in the west fjords of NW Iceland] 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 the English or Germans [who were regular visitors to Iceland in these days.] Reverend Bjorn Asgelrson [a local pastor in Adalvik] who was son of the sheriff Brundsson and had sailed [aboard] tried talking to them, but to no avail. He said their language sounded like bird talk. They went away peacefully…”
GM contends Cantonese does sound like ‘bird talk’ on account of the whistling noise.
Legends about Iceland
· 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)
Iceland was first settled just prior to 1,000 A.D., and the voyages to Greenland and America took place about a generation later. Thorvald Erikson, younger brother of Leif Erikson, who led the first expedition to Greenland, was killed in a fight with Indians in Fall River, Mass. Their party was ambushed by Indians who had the use of gunpowder. His widow was among the party that experienced the gunpowder attack, so the date could not have been later than about 1100 A.D. How did these Indians have access to gunpowder, a Chinese invention? (Joel Carlinsky)
The Azores – Maps
· The Azores appear on Vinland Map (c. 1440)
· The Azores appear on Chinese / Korean map Kangnido, published before Portuguese discovered islands. Azores did not appear on Arab maps then.
Accounts of Contempory European Historians or Explorers (Azores)
· Columbus reported dead Chinese floating off Flores Island nearest N. America.
· First Portuguese found statue of a horseman on Corvo with “…writing we could not understand…” on plinth.
DNA (Azores)
· Azores people unexpectedly have “Chinese” and Mongolian DNA, nearer to them genetically than to Portuguese (Professor Arnaiz Villena and colleagues)
“… We unexpectedly found Oriental genes (but Chinese) in the present day Azorean population, and postulated that the arrival of the genes was before the Portuguese…”
Meteorological events and weather
· Current (Gulf Stream) would have carried fleet clockwise to Azores if there was a flat calm in central Atlantic. If a flat calm it would also have taken them NW to Greenland.
· After the great storm of 1870, a stone village was exposed on Corvo.
Stars and Navigation
· In 1422 on summit of Corvo there was 0 degrees magnetic variation – an important location to check compasses.
· Additional evidence from Sorensen and Raish (Numbers refer to S & R bibliography): B 003; B007; C116; C383; F112b; G066b; L071; L364b; R071; R074b; S155
Ireland
Maps
· Sophisticated celestial maps (Newgrange) displaying advanced knowledge of heavens.
Accounts of Contemporary Historians and Explorers
· Joachim Feyerabend, in Millennium of hurricanes and floods; raging storms threaten our future, p.178: “…Cape Clear Island…there a Chinese junk is mentioned which strayed to the caperers ages past…” (Translation Axel Blomberg). Cape Clear is Ireland’s southern most inhabited island, 8 miles off the coast of West Cork.
· Columbus (1477 voyage) found drowned Chinese in an open boat (near Cape Clear)
· In Giles Milton’s The Riddle and the Knight; In Search of Sir John Mandeville from page 219 a reader quotes: “Columbus… when he heard that two oriental sailors had been washed up from a shipwreck on the coast of Ireland, he scribbled into the margin of one of his books: ‘men have come eastward from Cathay. We have seen many a remarkable thing, and particularly in Galway, in Ireland, two persons hanging on to two wreck planks, a man and a woman…’” – Raymond Bowen
Shipwrecks
· Legend of wrecked Chinese junk on Cape Clear Island
· Cedric Bell’s finds (Summer 2003) by Magnetic Anomaly Survey – Aran Islands: 2 junks buried in stone built harbours (same size as New Zealand junks) and 2 more breached buried under beach. Also man-made stone canals; stone piers; outer fortress walls; double anchors.
Chinese Porcelain and Ceramics
– Fifty Chinese seals are in the possession of an Irish museum, dated 1200AD-1600AD, found all over SE Ireland. Scientific American magazine, May 2002 page 16. “A paper was read before the Belfast Literary Society in Ireland, on Chinese porcelain seals. About fifty of these have been found there, some in deep bogs, one in a cave, others scattered about. How they came there nobody can tell. They have inscriptions on them in the ancient Chinese seal language, and Mr. [Rev. Dr. Karl] Gutzlaff had translated a number of them. Each seal is a perfect cube, with the figure of a Chinese monkey by way of a handle. It is supposed they may have been brought there by ancient Phoenicians, but it is our opinion that they were brought there by some of the ancient Irish tribes, who no doubt journeyed through China.” (David Upton) Could these seals have been brought here by the Chinese on the great 1421 voyages? For more information please visit the following link:
http://people.freenet.de/kompost/chinseal.htm
– Chinese ceramics – Foyle estuary in Northern Ireland (Colin Baker)
– After having read the article on the seals in the 1980 book by Welfare and Fairley “Mysterious World” Reader wonders if it is possible that the Chinese Porcelain Seals which were discovered in Ireland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries could be connected in some way to the voyages of Zheng He.
(Robert G Hardy).
Animals found indigenous to another continent
· Belfast museum has ‘Queer little Chinese apes’ found in County Down IN Search of Ireland by H. V. Morton, 1930 – (Gillian Bartlett)
· Domesticated otters, trained to fish salmon found in Ireland (Harrington/ Dunton: Ted Jeggo evidence)
Note: DNA of Aran Islands people and those who live around Galway Bay is urgently required.
Outer Hebrides, Shetland Islands and Scotland
· Certain people of Outer Hebrides have inexplicable Korean DNA (Professor Bryan Sykes)
· They also have inexplicable Native American Indian DNA (Professor Noah Rosenberg and colleagues: Harvard and Yale Study)
· The Roslyn chapel (10 miles SE of Edinburgh) built c. 1449 has carvings of N. American maize on stairway leading to cellar
· Otters around the Isle of Skye – could they have been brought there by the Chinese fleets? – more research needed (Margaret Lindsay)
· ‘New Zealand Holly’ growing in gardens in Isle of Syke – more research needed (Margaret Lindsay)· Tartan or cloth that was identified as containing hebredian or Scottish woollen fibres and was very old was found in China and a musical instrument that was curiously like a set of bagpipes (Margaret Lindsay)
· Isle of Barra and Isle of Oban , Scotland – Asian facial characteristics are present – Michael Nancollas.
· According to a reader, inhabitants of the Shetland Islands have the nickname “Chinese of the North Sea”
England?
· The uncorroborated story from letters passing between the first English settlers in Massachusetts and their friends and relatives back home say how – [ In the 1420’s a huge Chinese fleet with giant ships with red sails arrived off England. They complained to the Dowager Queen (Joan of Navarre) that they had not been well received in Portugal or Spain and were now on their way to Muscovy. They presented her with vases which she had stored in her palace outside London.]
Can anyone throw any light on this extraordinary story?
· The motif of 3 hares, which share ears between them, each looking as though they have two, originates in the cave paintings in Tyo Dunhaung. They can be also found on many a stained glass window in Devon eg at the Castle Inn in Lydford and also on the floor tile of Chester Cathedral. It can also be found in France and Germany. Is it possible that the Chinese brought this motif over themselves rather than passed on along the Silk Route as is presumed? – (efmstary)
Norway
· Chinese DNA found in local people of North Norway – Professor Bryan Sykes
Sweden
· A master student of archaeology in Sweden has been doing research into carvings 6000-500 BC at the Umea University. In 2001 she visited carving sites in northern Sweden and found strong similarities between them and Chinese cave art of the time. As far as she can see the elk culture and rituals came from the Amur region in northern China. We think it is possible to follow activity from the Amur region and up north by the Leena river, to Finland, Sweden and Norway by reading the carvings. Our source has found many interesting Chinese glyphs, not least signs for silk, and the depiction of a figure with long dress, like a Chinese magician. The carvings are depicted very distinctly, the lines of which are more like lines of graphic art, and are clearly the work of a sophisticated culture.
Denmark
On 8th May 2006, Mr. Runtian Sun, Chairman of the Nordic Association for the Collection and Preservation of Chinese antiques, Lynqby, Denmark, emailed to say his Association had in its possession a Shui Jian – that is a large basin or small bath, originally owned by Admiral Zheng He. On the rim of its mouth are engraved 13 Chinese characters reading from right to left as “用置和郑监太使正差钦国明大” (pronounced as Da Ming Guo Qin Chai Zheng Shi Tai Jian Zheng He Zhi Yong). Gavin travelled to Denmark to view the Shui Jian. A memo can be read here here
