The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-04-12
1000 Years Before Columbus.

There is man in this city, says San
Francisco letter, who would strip not only
Columbus, but even Lief, the Norwegian,
of his honors as the first and only origi.
nal discoverer of the American continent.
He believes that he has indisputable
proof that Chinese monks, inspired by
missionary zeal, visited, colonized and
attempted to civilize the western coast OF
America 1000 years or more before Col.
umbus ever dreamed that he might sail
the round world round.
This is the Rev. Frederick j. Masters,
superintendent of Chinese missions of the
Pacific coast, who has spent seventeen
years-nine in China and eight in this
country-in active missionary work
among the Chinese. During all that
time he has given constant study to the
Chinese language and literature, until he
is almost as familiar with them as be is
with the Eoglish. Among the first
things in the Chinese literature thpt in.
terested him was the tradition of their
discovery of America, and he has studied
everything he could find iu that tongue
bearing upon the subject, comparing
with their statements the collateral
proofs to be found in this country. The
result is that he is thoroughly convinced
of the truth of the Chinese claim.
"The Chinese story" says Mr.. Masters,
sis that about 1,4O0 years ago-possioly
a little more-a party of Chinese Budd-
hist monks, fired by missionary zeal, set
out to spread their religion in other
lands. This happened at period, as is
shown by the history of the times, 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 trip across the
Pacific is de6uite enough to enable one
to trace their routes across the ocean.
They found q continent and one, a. least,
of them, Lay Sang by name, stayed in
that new country fnrty years and then
returned to his native land, and wrote
such description of that far away
cline, its people and their customs. as
plainly shows that it was Mexico be had
visited.
"Several trips across the ocean must
have been made, and on one of these
their vessels must have sailed further
north. The tradition of their visit still
remains among the Alaskan Indians, and
Chinese coins bearing date previous to
the time when these voyages we're made
have been unearthed upon Alaskan
shores.
"It is my opinion that good many
Chinese must have made their way to
these shores, for the Indians Of this west
ern coast show 80 much similarity IN
appearance, language and customs to
the people of that country that it cannot
be- dismissed as accidental. Take a
Chinamau that has worked several years
under the burning sun of the interior
plains, let bis hair grow down his neck
and wrsn blanket around him and it is
impossible to select him from group OF
native Indians. His features and stature
are nearly the came, and summer or
two under the hot sun will make his
complexion Identical. In native stoicism
their temperaments are much alike, aud
there is much similarity between the
Chinese language and the tongue of the
Digger Indian. The Indian marriage
customs, their methods of calculation
and certain phases of their religion bear
Chinese marks, as if a stronger civiliza-
tion had attempted to impress itself upon
tribe weaker, physically and intellectu.
ally, but had only left traces of ITSELF
because its representatives had been
comparatively few in number.
"Then the Aztec and Tolted civiliza-
tions show unmistakable proof OF Mon
polian communication. There is so much
in their architecture, their language and
their customs-as far as it is possible to
determine what these were-that ls
closely similar to the Chinese that no
other hypothesis than this of Chinese
colonization of this coast will explain It,"