This chapter introduces research into specific places which are shown on the 1418 map, and in this instance it is the river system which empties into the Atlantic on the northern tip of a protruding promontory – in the same position with the same shape lies Cape Hatteras. Leading inwards from Cape Hatteras is the Roanoke River. The map shows this river branching into 3 arms, and this is corroborated by the mountains shown on the 1418 map, notably the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Cumberland Plateau, the Appalachians and the Piedmont Plateau. The area around the Roanoke river system is replete with evidence of the Chinese fleets’ visit. This chapter recounts some of this evidence, not least that of DNA, diseases, and accounts of the first European explorers arriving in the area to find Chinese travellers, and the wrecks of their ships.
Taking all of the evidence contained in this chapter in the round, we have a clear indication that a civilised and sophisticated group of Chinese were living in North Carolina and the Virginias by the time the first Europeans arrived there.
Further reading:
Machado Joseph’s disease – http://1.usa.gov/1c1FTJz
Lee, Siu-Leung. http://www.asiawind.com/zhenghe
Lee, Siu-Leung. Deciphering the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu, a Chinese world map – Ming Chinese mapped the world before Columbus (in Chinese). Taipei: Linking Publishing Company, 2012.
Smith, Captain John. The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles. Edited by Philip Barbour. New York: Wisconsin Historical Society/Scribner’s, 2003.
