Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1893-03-31
1000 YEARS BEFORE c0lUnsUs.
The Tradition Of the Chinese Voyages 10
Mexico and Alaska.

SAN Francisco, March So.---Therc is
| man in this city who woald strip not onl,
Columbus. but even Lief, the Norwegian
of his honors ss the first and oaly origina
,iiseoverer of the American continent. liz
believes that he has indispatsble proof tina
Chinese monks, inspired by missionsr,
zeal. visited, colonised, and attempted tt
cisilire the western coast of America s
thousand years or more before Columbus
ever dreamed that he might sail the rounl
world round.
This is the Rev. Frederick j. Masters
superintendent of Chinese missions of thu
Pacific coast who has spent l. years-nin,
in China and eight in this country--iu act
ve missionary work among the Chinese
During all that time he has given constant
study to the Chinese language and ii,ers'
iure. until he is almos, as familiar with
them as he is with the English.
Among the first things IN the Chinese lit
,rature that interested him was a tradition
Of their discovery of America. and he has
studied everything he could find in that
tongue bearing upon the subject, compar'
ing with their statements the collateral
proofs to be found in this county. The re-
suit is that he is throughly convinced OF
the truth OF the Chinese claim.
The Chinese story, says Mr.. Masters.
lis that about HOO years ago-possibly a
little more--a party of Chinese Buddhist
monks, fired by missionary zeal, set out 10
spread their religion 10 other lands. THIS
happened, AS is shown in history of the
time, when unusual enthusiasm prevailed
over the Buddhist religion throughout
China.
This party of monks, there were five of
them. sailed toward the rising sun and the
description of their trips across the Allan
tic is definite enough for one to trace their
routes across the ocean. They found a
continent, and one. at least of them, Lay
sang by name, stayed in that new country
10 wears and then returned to his native
land, and wrote such description of that
faraway cline, its people and customs, as
plainly shows il was Mexico he visited.
Several trips across the ocean must have
been made, and on one of them their YES
sells must have sailed further north. The
tradition of their visit still remain among
the Alaskan Indians, and Chinese coins
bearing date previous 10 the time when
these voyages were made have been un-
earthcd upon Alaskan shores.
nese must have made their way 10 these
shores, for the Indian tribes of this Wes-
tern coast show so much similarity in ap-
pcarance, language and customs to the
people of that country that il cannot be
dismissed as accidental.
Take Chinaman who has worked scye-
raj years under the burning sun of the in
terror plains, let his hair grow down
around his neck and wrap blanket round
him, and it Is impossible to select him from
group of native Indians. His features
and stature are nearly the same, and his
complexion identical. In native stoicism
their tempersments are much alike, and
there is much similarity between the Chi
nese language and the tongue of the Digger
Indian.
The Indian marriage customs, theiI
method of calculation, and certain phases
of their religion bear Chinese marks, as if u
stronger civilization bad attempted to i'm
press itself upon n tribe weaker physically
and intellectually, but had only left trace'
of itself, because its representatives had
been comparatively few in number.
Then the Aztec and Toltec civilization
show unmistakuble proofs of Monaghan
communication. There is so much in theil
architecture, their language and their Gus
toms--as far as it is possible to detcrmn,
what these were-that 1t is closely similar Il
the Chinese that no other hypothesis thar
this of Chinese colonization of this coas
will explain it,"