When the first Europeans arrived in New Zealand they came across an array of plants foreign to the island. The most common was Chenopodium album, introduced from North America, where it has been used by native peoples to make cakes since time immemorial. Captain Cook discovered it in 1769. The second is marsh cress, Rorippa palustris, identified by the French expedition of 1826–9 aboard L’Astrobole. Again, this was used by the Navajo – who have Chinese DNA, and whose elders to this day understand Chinese – as a ritual eyewash. Others include maize, which originated in Peru; scented grass from Colombia; taro from China (Captain Cook); yams from the Pacific (Captain Cook); and, most celebrated of all, the kumara, the sweet potato, from South America (where it is called kumar), which, as Captain Cook rightly said, was a vitally important food for Maori people.
Someone, either Maoris, Polynesians, South American Indians or Chinese, must have brought these plants to New Zealand. The carriers clearly were not Europeans for they found the plants there. Thor Heyerdahl, to my mind one of the greatest explorers of all time, argued that it was Incas who had sailed from Peru to Tahiti then onwards. Regrettably, DNA has shown that his hypothesis is incorrect; if it were true, Inca DNA should be found on the Pacific islands. An investigative team of Cambridge archaeologists and geneticists led by Matt Hurles published their findings in the American Journal of Human Genetics: only on one island around Tahiti, Rapa, did they find the distinctive DNA of native South Americans, and these Rapa genes had come from the crew of a Peruvian ship that stopped off at the island in 1862 to kidnap slaves.
Could it have been Maoris or Polynesians who travelled to South America and returned with the plants? This possibility has been examined by Professor Bryan Sykes and his team at Oxford University and written up in Bryan’s wonderful book The Seven Daughters of Eve. ‘If we found DNA matches [of Polynesians] in Chile or Peru, or even in coastal North America,’ he wrote, ‘then Heyerdahl was right. If we found them in south-east Asia, he was wrong.’ Later, he concluded: ‘I had to be sure that 247, the defining variant of Polynesian mitochondrial DNA, was not abundant in the Americas. No-one had ever seen it. Not even once. Heyerdahl was wrong.’
So that, in my view, leaves only the Chinese as the possible carriers to Australia (seventy-four species) and New Zealand (eight species) of those South American plants found by the first Europeans. If it was the Chinese, their DNA should be found on both sides of the Pacific, in the Incas and the Maoris. We know that’s true for the Incas, but does Chinese DNA turn up in the Maoris?
First, a short digression. The Maoris were not the first to settle in New Zealand. Carbon dating of rat bones found in Hawkes Bay on the east coast of North Island shows them to be at least two thousand years old. The oldest Maori settlement dates back to AD 800. Dr Richard Holdaway, a Christchurch palaeontologist, says the rats must have arrived with human voyagers – in short, humans must have arrived 800 years before the Maoris. As Dr Rau Kirikiri, a leading Maori academic, reflected, ‘this could lead Maoris to question their own history’.
Back to Maori DNA. For the past fifty years debate has raged over where the Maori came from. Some say China (Taiwan), others Indonesia. Events have recently taken a startling turn. Adele White, for the ABC television programme Catalyst (broadcast on 27 March 2003), used mitochondrial (female line) DNA to trace Maori origins back as far as mainland Asia. But where in mainland Asia? The answer came from a surprising quarter – by looking at the gene for alcohol. Adele’s supervisor, Dr Geoff Chambers, found a match between one of the variant genes for alcohol with people from Taiwan, so it seemed the original homeland of the Maori people was Taiwan. Or was it? When Dr Chambers’ team studied the Y (male) chromosome, they found a different story. While the females came from China, most of the men came from Melanesia.
What might have happened is that a small number of Melanesians settled in New Zealand about two thousand years ago; it was they who brought the rats whose bones have been carbon dated. Zhou Man’s fleet arrived from the Antarctic (Campbell Island) in 1422/23. They landed in substantial numbers in South Island and some ships were wrecked on North Island (Ruapuke Beach). The fleets carried Chinese Tanka concubines. The Melanesians murdered the Chinese men and took the concubines as their wives. If this was the case, evidence of the Chinese visit to South Island should be there. Thanks to Cedric Bell, to whom I am indebted, that evidence has been found. We have carbon dating of wood, mortar, stone and slag as evidence that the Chinese lived on South Island and mined her minerals for five centuries before Captain Cook ‘discovered’ New Zealand.
I am, now more than ever, convinced that accepted history has been turned upside down, not only in New Zealand and Australia but in North and South America, across the Pacific and in the Arctic and Antarctic. The great bulk of the new evidence that has enabled me to make such startling claims has come from readers of my book. It is you, not historians or academics, who have rewritten history.
Gavin Menzies
London, May 2003
The third Ming emperor, Zhu Di, under whom exploration flourished.
From 1406 to 1420 Zhu Di presided over the building of the Forbidden City with the Imperial Palace (this and following picture) as its centre.
The Imperial Palace
The Temple of Heaven was its place of ritual; it encompasses the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests where the emperor came to pray at the new year.
When the capital moved north, the renovation of the Great Wall became a priority.
The Ming court in life and death: the emperor sits ensconced at the bottom level of a Taoist shrine between a civil and a military adviser and flanked by two guardian figures.
The Spirit Way leading to the Ming tombs in Beijing is lined by stone warriors and high officials, here a Grand Secretary...
...As well as powerful beasts – exotic elephants and the mythical quilin (below).
The mythical quilin.
The treasure ships took with them not only the much-prized blue and white porcelain (above and top), but also jade (middle), lacquer (right) and luxurious silk textiles (below).
A giraffe, with its attendant, sent from Africa to the Ming imperial court as tribute.
Europe and Africa from Fra Mauro’s planisphere of 1459: south is at the top. The surface is a glittering pattern of text and schematic walled medieval towns, but the map itself is informed by real geography, the result of up-to-date knowledge gleaned from contemporary explorers.
A detail of Africa and Asia from the Kangnido world map of 1402 by Ch’uan Chin and Li Hui, the most advanced of its day.
The Cape of Good Hope is delineated with extraordinary accuracy.
Chinese supremacy in the Indian Ocean: the Galle stele, inscribed in four languages, testifies to Zheng He’s attempts at diplomacy with the diverse inhabitants of Sri Lanka.
By the time Zheng He set sail, the Chinese had well-established routes along the Malabar coast (top) where Chinese fishing nets are still used (bottom)...
...And across the ocean to East African trading forts such as Kilwa, where Ming porcelain is incorporated into the mosque, just as in these pillar-tombs further up the coast at Kunduchi (inset).
The Piri Reis map of 1513, oriented with north to the left, so that South America is at the bottom of the page and Africa and Europe at the top.
The inhospitable shores of Antarctica...
...It is easy to see how giant icebergs could be mistaken for islands.
A magnificent Ming porcelain bowl, decorated with a phoenix and a quilin, recovered from the Pandanan wreck.
The Jean Rotz world map, 1542.
Chinese influence abroad: a contemporary lacquer chest produced in Mexico; the Cherokee rose (inset) originating in China and found in North America.
Artefacts recovered from the Pandanan wreck, including a bronze ceremonial saluting cannon...
...A bronze mirror
...A coin of Zhu Di’s reign.
...And grinding stones from Central America.
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The Waldseemüller map of 1507 (reproduction coloured in the style of the period).
The Pizzigano chart of 1424 and an enlarged detail of Antilia/Puerto Rico, The rectangular, blue island above is Satanazes/Guadeloupe.
Guadeloupe. Les Saintes, approached from the south-east (following picture), would look like one island curving to the north-west.
La Souffrière on Basse Terre (seen here) is not far to the north.
The Chinese and the New World. The controversial Vinland map and a detail of Greenland, further proof of the extent of Chinese exploration.
The Bimini stones (right) in the Caribbean: surely these are man-made? One of the pyramids (left) at Guímar in the Canary Islands. It shows a remarkable resemblance to a Chinese gnomon.
The influential Cantino world chart of 1502.
European exploration: in the fourteenth century Marco Polo with his father and uncle.
In the fifteenth (left to right) Christopher Columbus; Vasco da Gama and Ferdinand Magellan.
By the sixteenth century trade with ports such as Calicut was thriving...
...But the level of scientific inquiry did not reach Chinese proportions until the advent of Captain James Cook and Joseph Banks (left), who stopped off for water in Tierra del Fucgo en route for Tahiti in 1769 (right).
Prince Henry the Navigator looking westwards from the prow of the monument at Belèm to four hundred years of Portuguese exploration.
APPENDIX 1
CHINESE CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE WORLD 1421–3: SYNOPSIS OF EVIDENCE
As well as consulting the historians mentioned in the Acknowledgements, in October, November and December 2002 the author visited Nanjing, Shanghai, Taicang, Kunming and Beijing and presented one hundred copies of his book to professors and historians at the following institutions, together with his latest synopses of evidence translated into Chinese: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, National Museum of Chinese History, History Institute of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Chinese Society on Ming Dynasty History, Ming Division of the History Institute of China, Chinese Society of Histories of China’s Foreign Relations, Chinese Institute for Marine Affairs, C.S. Name Consultancy Group, CMHIA Ocean Association, CSO Military Oceanography Committee, Association of Studies of Ming Dynasty, Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, History and Natural Science and Technology Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Geographical Studies Institute, Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, Ministry of Transport Research Institute, Yunnan University (Kunming), Peking University (Beijing), Nanjing University, Chinese Society for Historians of China’s Foreign Relations, Chinese American Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, Shanghai Society for International Relations, Shanghai Centre for Strategic and International Societies, Zheng He Memorial Hall of Liu He (Taicang), Chinese Marine History Researchers Association, Zheng He Research Association, Navy Command College of the People’s Republic of China, National Cheng Kung University, Zheng He family archives, Taicang Museum, Zheng He’s Museum (Mausoleum) in Nanjing, Zheng He’s Museum (birthplace) in Kunming, Cheng He Navigation Research Foundation, Jiantong University (Shanghai), and the China Institute for Ethnic Chinese History Studies. The evidence has been carefully considered by more than two hundred experts. Of these, approximately 85 per cent accept the author’s argument that Chinese fleets discovered the New World before Europeans. Details of the issues over which about 15 per cent disagree will be provided to any researcher who requests them.
Part I: European explorers did not discover the New World
Part II: Only the Chinese had the capacity to chart the world at that time
Part III: Evidence of the voyages of Zheng He’s fleets
Key to the discoveries: the determination of latitude and longitude
Chinese maps, star charts and records that escaped destruction
Chinese or Asiatic peoples found by the first European explorers
Local peoples’ descriptions of Chinese or Asiatic peoples who settled among them before Europeans arrived
Linguistics and languages common to New World and China
Accounts of contemporary and other historians
Shipwrecks
Chinese porcelain/ceramics found in wake of Zheng He’s fleets
Pre-Columbian Chinese jade found in wake of Zheng He’s fleets
Artefacts, gems and votive offerings found in wake of Zheng He’s fleets
Stone buildings or artefacts found in wake of Zheng He’s fleets
Mining operations found by Europeans when they reached the New World
Advanced technologies found by first Europeans
Plants indigenous to one continent found on another by early European explorers
Animals indigenous to one continent found on another by early European explorers
Art exported by Zheng He’s fleets
Customs and games exported from China to the New World, as found by European explorers
Armour
Links with the years 1421–3
Chinese already in the Americas when the first Europeans arrived: bibliographical evidence
Part IV: Evidence of Zheng He’s fleets’ visits to specific places
Indian Ocean
East Africa
The Atlantic and the Cape Verde Islands
The Caribbean
Florida (including ‘Florida’ as defined in 17th century)
The Carolinas/Virginia
New England, Massachusetts and Boston/New York
Upper Mississippi
British Columbia (Queen Charlotte and Vancouver Islands) and Washington State
Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Colorado and Oregon
California
The Azores
Mexico
Panama and Venezuela
Peru
Brazil (1421–5)
Patagonia and Straits of Magellan
Greenland to North Pole, across Arctic to Bering Straits
Antarctica
The Pacific
New Zealand
Australia
The Spice Islands, Indonesia and the Philippines
Part V: Genetic fingerprints left by Zheng He’s fleets – the DNA evidence
The Navajo
The Mazatec people of Mexico (Olmec culture)
Campeche and Buctzozt Maya
Waunana and Ngobe peoples of Panama
Inca peoples
Indian peoples of Venezuela and Colombia: Irapa, Paraujano and Macoita
Surui people of Amazonia and Solimões/Rio Negro Junction
Quechua (Bolivia/Mato Grosso borders) and Toba (NW Argentina, Salado River) peoples
Haida and Aleut peoples
Moskoke people of SE USA and NW Florida
Ming Ho and Melungeon peoples
Sioux and Cree Ojibwa peoples of America and Canada
Maidu, Yuki, Pima and Wintun peoples of California
Maori people of New Zealand, North Island
Gunditjmara Aborigines of Victoria, South Australia
Part I: European explorers did not discover the New World
Evidence provided at the Royal Geographical Society 15 March 2002 (which included charts, medieval documents and the evidence of Dr Eusebio Dizon – circulated separately).
The whole world was charted by 1423, before European voyages of discovery started.
THEORY
Four huge Chinese fleets circumnavigated the world between March 1421 and October 1423. The fleets comprised more than 800 vessels. These fleets charted the world.
Sailors and concubines from those great fleets settled in Malaysia, India, Africa, North and South America, Australia, New Zealand and on islands across the Pacific.
The first European explorers had maps showing where they were going before they set sail. They met Chinese settlers when they arrived in the New World.
China, not Europe, discovered and settled the New World.
European ‘discoveries’ relied on China leading the way.
The whole world was charted by 1428 – by whom? Portuguese claim they had a chart of the whole world by then. They do not claim to have created that chart.
Pizzigano, Fra Mauro, Piri Reis, Cantino, Caverio, Waldseemüller and Jean Rotz charts show whole world charted before Europeans set sail.
1421: The Year China Discovered the World Page 38