Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1870-11-18

yular or strange concentration OF c1rcum-
stances was interrupted long before the
Europeans discovered the so-called New
World -
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA BY THE CHINESE.
But the question will be asked, was
IColumbus the first discoverer of America
or did he simply rediscover that continent
after it. had been settled for ages before,
and had been forgotten by the people OF
the old world? Let us see. 1t is singu-
lar that this question has not long since
been raised, for it is very clear that one
of two things must be true, either that
the people whom Columbus found in A.
merica must have been descended from
the Old World, aud that. therefore, Amer
lea was known to the Old World, or else
the natives of the Western hemisphere
were the result of spontaneous generation
the development Of man from lower
species of animal. or descended from a
second Adam and Eve, whose origin would
be equally puzzling to US. Unless we
pitch aside Holy Writ and all our general
notions of the origin of the human family.
or race, we must believe that there was at
one time communication between the Old
World and the New. The supposition is
reasonable to infer that communication
was kept up on the opposite side of the
world to ours, that is between the eastern
and western coasts of Asia and that por-
ton of America most remote from Europe;
and it is quite probable that the people of
Eastern Asia may have been aware Of the
existence of America. and kept up COM
munication with it, while our part of the
Old World never dreamed of its existence.
The impenetrable barrier the Chinese
were always anxious to preserve between
themselves and the Old World renders it
quite possible that they should have kept
their knowledge of America to themselves.
lor at all events from Europe. II the
Chinese had not the knowledge to have
crossed the Pacific and land ON the west
ern shores of America it would be strange.
It would have been no difficult task to
have passed over from Asia to Behring's
Island and from thence to Attou, which
| is the most western island Of the Aleutian
group of islands of Alaska; and the dis
tance between either of these places would
present no great obstacle Of accomplish
ment, as you can almost see from one is
land to the other. We also knop now
THAT ar and sciences, which were once
generally supposed to be of quite modern
an origin, existed in China ages and ages
before their discovery in Europe.
The arts Of paper-making and even
printing. among others. have been prac-
tised in China long before Europeans had
any idea of them. Why. then, should
not the Chinese have been equally. or
more, in advance of US in navigation
The stately ruins of Balbec. wi h gigantic
arches across the streets, whose erection
would puzzle our modern engineers; the
Pyramids, and other such remains of stu
pendous works, point to state of civili-
zation and the existence of the arts and
sciences in times of which European his
torians give no account.
There is among the Chinese records not
merely vague references to country west
of the Atlantic but circumstantial ac-
count of it's discovery by the Chinese long
before Columbus was born.
A competent authority on this subject,
J. Haulay. the Chinese interpreter in San
Francisco, has lately written an essay on
this question, and from which we gather
the following startling statements, drawn
from Chinese historians and geographers.
Fourteen hundred years.ago even A.
merica had been discovered by the Chinese
and described by them. They stated that
land to be about 10000 Chinese miles
from China. About 500 years after the
birth of Christ. Buddhist priests repaired
there and brought back the news that they
had met with Buddhist idols and religious
writings in the country already. Their
descriptions resemble those of the Span
iards thousand years after. They call
ed the country ''Fusany;' after tree
which grew there, whose leaves resemble
those Of the bamboo. whose bark the ma
tives made clothes and paper out Of and
whose fruit they ate.
These particulars correspond exactly
and remarkably with those given by the
1AuCIiC ulSIoi L ICSCOLts tuc
-maquay tree in Mexico. He states that
Aztecs prepared pulp for paper, making
it ou: OF the bark of this tree. Then,
even its leaves were used for thatching,
its 6bres for making ropes. its roots yield
ed a nourishing food, and its sap, by
means of fermentation, was made into an
Intoxicating drink. The account given
by the Chinese and Spaniards, although
thousand years apart, agree in stating that
the natives did not possess any iron for
working in stone and metals, out of mix
ture of copper and tin. and they. in COM
parison with the nations of Europe and
Asia, thought but little of the worth of
silver and gold.
The religious customs and forms Of wor-
ship presented the same characteristics to
the Chinese fourteen hundred years ago
as to the Spaniards four hundred years
ago. There is also very remarkable re-
semblance between the religion of the Az
tees and the Buddhism of the Chinese, as
we'll as striking similarity in their GUS
toms and manners.