The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1893-10-05
EARLY CHINESE EXPLORERS.
Records In Existence Allege They Visited
Mexico 1900 Years Ago.

~s0oOAUs Al 6Aietence AAege They Visited
Mexico 1900 Years Ago.
There is abundant evidence to
show the accurate knowledge DOS
sessed by the Chinese of the coasts
of the, northern Pacific as far as
kamchatka, of which country very
full accounts are given by their writ
ers in the sixth and seventh eentu-
ries.
The distance to Kamchatka from
China is given with great exaetness,
and mention is made of the Aleutian
isles to the east Of it and the custom
of painting their bodies practiced by
the inhabitants of these islands. It
is not such very long step from the
Aleutian isles to the peninsula of
Alaska, and this, too, appears to be
clearly indicated in the Chinese rec
ords of that early. date. Further, at
the end of the fifth century the Chi
nese discovered a country lying a
great distance to the southeast of
Alaska, which there seems to be a
good reason for placing in Mexico
or Central America.
The evidence for this discovery is
based on the report of Buddhist
priest named Hoei Shin, which was
ordered on the official annals of the
empire. Hoei Shin had returned to
China from a long journey to the
east in A. D. 499, and he states that
he had visited a country which he
had named Fusang after Chinese
plant which resembles one that grew
IN the newly discovered land, and
which the inhabitants made use of
for various purposes. He adds va
rious particulars about the country
and says he had been preceded by
five mendicant Buddhist monks from
some Asiatic kingdom, who had in
troduced the religion of Buddha into
Fusang in A. D. 4S5.
An embassy from this distant land
is recorded on one occasion, but there
is no record of any subsequent visit
of the Chinese to it. The evidence
consequently rests on the veracity of
Hoei Shin. Attempts have been made
to thEow doubt on the statements. It
remains to be considered, therefore,
whether the particulars mentioned
accord with what we know of these
countries before their occupation by
Europeans. 1t was certainly not with
the Aztec monarchy that Hoei Shin
came in contact, not even with the
Toltecs, those somewhat mysterious
predecessors of the Aztecs.
The journey was made in the dim
pre-Toltec period, of which only the
faintest outlines survive. Yet this
age was in all probability one of a
higher stage of culture than succeed
ing periods, if it was then, as appears
likely, that the vast cities whose
ruins still astonish the traveller in
Central America were the abodes of
a teeming population and the seat of
a mighty empire. It is obvious,
therefore, that we have no right to
expect any perfect resemblance of
the Mexican of the fifth century to
the Mexican of 1000 years ago,
while, if any points of coincidence
exist, the fact must be of great value
as evidence.
Now, it is astonishing how many
of the particulars in the Chinese
record do agree very closely with the
well known facts about the inhab
itants Of the district of America in
question. Hoei Shin tells us that the
people in Fusang had a monarchical
government, with different orders OF
nobility. He speaks of their reckon.
ing time by cycles of years. He
mentions also the custom of accom-
panying royal professions with the
sounds of horns and trumpets. He
says that the houses were built of
wood; that iron was unknown; that
copper, gold and silver were known,
but not used in exchange or much
valued. Leisure Hour.