Annex 6 – Evidence of Chinese Fleets visit to Atlantic and Cape Verde Islands
1. Maps
- Cape of Good Hope and West Africa appear on charts drawn before Europeans reached cape, viz. Fra Mauro 1459, Mao Kun c. 1402, Da Ming Yi Tu (1389).
2. Chinese records and claims
- Chinese economic history – their ships rounded Cape and reached Congo River before Portuguese.
3. Accounts of contemporary European Historians and Explorers
- Fra Mauro drew Chinese junks accurately.
- Fra Mauro’s story of ship or junks from India rounding Cape.
- Dutch accounts of fleet of junks rounding Cape Town wrecked near Port Nolloth (J Parkinson, So Few Are Free, p. 145)
4. Local Peoples’ descriptions of Chinese or Asiatic peoples who settled amongst them before
Europeans arrived and of their ancestry
- Namaquas – “Chinese Hottentots” – tell first Dutch settlers they are descendants of shipwrecked Chinese.
5. Linguistics
Further research needed
6. Shipwrecks/ Chinese anchors and fishing gear
Further research needed
7. Chinese Porcelain and Ceramics
Further research needed
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
Further research needed
10. Stone: buildings, observation platforms and carved markers
- The carved (Malayalam) stone on Cape Verde Islands at Santo Antão (Janela).
- The similar carved stone at Matadi Falls.
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
Further research needed
13. Plants found indigenous to another continent
- 26-chromosome American cotton, originally from N America then to Africa and Cape Verde Islands, found by first Europeans in Cape Verde (before Columbus)
- In a conference in the 1980’s there was discussion by Wilfredo Wilpret de la Torre of several aromatic plants that existed on the Canary Islands that only existed there and in the coastal zones of some countries in the southern Caribbean. Also, in the old Chronicles of Grand Canaria there are reports of well developed fig trees found by the Spanish on their arrival there in the fifteenth century.
14. Animals found indigenous to another continent
- There existed in abundance before the arrival of the first Europeans a breed of black pig, very different to those brought by the first Europeans, which today exists only on Palma – J.Sanabria Díaz
15. Art
Further research needed
16.Chinese customs, games, clothes and legends found
- ‘Chinese’ characteristics of Namaquas, viz. cattle breeding, Pleiades legends.
17. Armour, metal weapons, cannons and implements found
Further research needed
18. Diseases
Further research needed
19. DNA
Further research needed
20. Meteorological events and weather
Further research needed
21. Stars and Navigation
Further research needed
View maps: The Waldseemüller map, The Piri Reis map, The Jean Rotz map, The Cantino world map
