Gavin Menzies' Fantasy Land! 
By Bill Hartz    

wmthe2nd@lycos.com
Long Beach, Washington

Introduction note by Dr. Luciano da Silva 

I continue to receive various negative criticisms about the book written by Gavin Menzies  concerning the Discovery of America by the Chinese in 1421.  

 

 

Despite the overwhelming  destruction of Menzies' book by historians, captains of the sea from various nations, he continues to sell books and insists in  giving  lectures to fool and exploit many thousands of readers. 

 

 

Here is a collection of desultory notes regarding 1421: the Year China Discovered America written by  Bill Hartz, in which he analyzes, meticulously,  various points  and demonstrates that Gavin Menzies is absolutely WRONG in All of them. 

 

 

 

Here is Bill Hartz's  article:

Gavin Menzies wrote 1421:The Year China Discovered America and labeled it non-fiction. It purported to be a factual rewrite of history: the true story of the previously unknown exploration of the world by the fleet of Zheng He in 1421-23. The Chinese admiral was indeed the premiere maritime figure of his era, and his exploits are impressive, well known and documented. During seven voyages, 1405 - 1433, the ships of Zheng He’s fleet visited as many as 37 countries of the South Asia Seas, Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf. Gavin now proposes they also discovered the world during the sixth trip in 1421. He contends they sailed through the Arctic Ocean and around Russia and Greenland, visited the Caribbean, the east and west coasts of  North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and many islands in the Pacific Ocean.

At least superficially the book looks as if it might be a serious history; it has the form, quite a few endnotes with source citations, a long bibliography, etc. And it has some heft, 552 pages. But alas, in our opinion it’s not really a history, it’s a poser, and belongs on the fiction list. Gavin promised gravitas and delivered only avoirdupois. We speculate Gavin had the dream first, and then went looking for evidence to prove it real, couldn’t find any, so he just made it up.

How did I reach that view? Mainly by slogging through the author’s source citations. Gavin’s problem was that he had to include endnotes and source material. And if you can find the material he cites, much of it is rather obscure, the odds are you will find that the source doesn’t say what Gavin claims. But then Gavin was in a pickle. If he hadn’t put in source notes, no one would have taken him seriously from the beginning, no one would have believed his nonsense, he might not even have found a publisher, and few would have bought the book if it had made it into print. It seems his only hope was to misuse, manipulate and misstate some legitimate source material to support his dream, and pray few would take the time and trouble to check the source cited. And apparently that’s what has happened. I have even read reviews impressed with the number of notes - clearly they hadn’t taken the time to locate and read them.

My comments on a few of Gavin’s nonsensical claims, and the source materials he abused, follow. Hoping to save some prospective researchers the effort of plowing the same field yet once more, spending time tracking down often obscure references, we have included rather long quotes in some cases.  Here are some of his tricky propositions, we contend more than sufficient to illustrate Gavin’s method, and his willingness to misrepresent the materials in an effort to sell his story.  

Gavin does have a swell imagination. And then it seems his musings magically turn into “facts” before our very eyes. Who can disagree, here is a top spinner of yarns, in great form.  But, isn’t that what old sea captains are famous for?

Homage to Tianfei

For example, at page 81 Gavin begins a discussion of the two carved stone tablets Zheng He erected in thanks to Tianfei, the “Celestial Spouse”. Gavin writes, “The first was in Chiang-Su,

Fujian Province, and the second at Liu-Chia-Chang ...”

That is not correct. Gavin has them reversed. The first was erected March 14, 1431 at the Palace

of the Celestial Spouse at Liu-Chia-Chiang, near the mouth of the Yangtze River, Jiangsu (Chiangsu) Province. The second was erected between 5 Dec 1431 and 3 January 1432  at Ch’ang lo (now Changle) at the mouth of the Min River in Fujian Province.

Then comes a quote from the first tablet, at the temple now known as the Jinghai Temple at Nanjing, Jiangsu Province.

            “From the time when we, Cheng Ho[Zheng He] and his companions at the beginning of  the Yung Lo Period[or Youg Le - Zhu Di, 1404], received the imperial commission as  envoys to the barbarians, up until now seven voyages have taken place and each time we  have commanded several tens of thousands of government soldiers and more than a hundred oceangoing vessels. Starting from T’ai Ts’ang and taking the sea, we have by way of the countries of Chan-Ch’eng (Champa), Hsien-Lo (Siam), Kua-Wu (Java), K’o   Chih (Cochin) and Ku-Li (Calicut) reached Hu-Lu-Mo-Ssu [Hormuz , in the Gulf] and  other countries of the western regions, more than three thousand countries in all ...”

The quote is from J.J.L. Duyvendak, “The True Dates of the Chinese Maritime Expeditions in the Early Fifteenth Century”, T’oung Pao, XXXIV, pp. 344-5.  If you look at the cited source

you will see a footnote 2 follows “three thousand”, and in the footnote Duyvendak has written the Chinese characters for three thousand, and for thirty, illustrating the similarities; and his comment is - “Obvious copyist error for thirty.”

Note Duyvendak is not suggesting the stone carver made any error. Quite the opposite. It is apparent Duyvendak believes the stone was correctly carved to read 30 and someone subsequently made the error copying the stone or transcribing a written record. Unfortunately, the stone is no longer extant. It is important to know what Duyvendak actually wrote, because at page 82 Gavin makes an unfounded claim, that Duyvendak and others thought the stone mason made the error. That’s Gavin’s mistake, or invention. Duyvendak thought and wrote that it was a “copyist error”.

Duyvendak includes the provenance of this first tablet’s language at pp. 341-2.

            “The first inscription was published in an article, signed October 2nd 1935, by Cheng  Hao-sheng on pp. 30-31 of the journal Kuo-feng Vol. VII, no 4, issued November 1st   1935. Curiously, although it is the most important article in the journal, its title does not   appear in the Table of Contents. Mr. Cheng wrote that he discovered the text of this inscription, in the Wu-tu Wen-sui Hsu-chi by Ch’ien Ku, a scholar from Ch’ang-chou, in  the Chia-ching period (1522-1566), published in the Collection of Rare Books from the   Ssu-k’u (Ssu-k’u Ch’uan-shu Chen-pen). There I found the text indeed in Ch. 28, pp.         36a-38b, from which it is here published in fac-simile (A).”

Although Gavin ends his quote with “more than three thousand countries in all”, the continuation contains pertinent information.

            “... in all, traversing more than a hundred thousand li of immense waterspaces and beholding waves (gaping like the mouths of) whales, rising up to heaven ...” ( Gavin claims 100,000 li equals 40,000 miles, which is more or less correct as the length of a li varied at different times and places.)  

At page 82 Gavin includes some of the language on the second tablet, which had been placed at the temple of the Celestial Spouse at Ch’ang lo (now Changle), at the mouth of the Min River on the Fujian coast, by Zheng He, between 5 December 1431 and 3 January 1432.

            “We have traversed more than 100,000 li of immense water spaces and have beheld in  the ocean huge waves like mountains rising sky-high, and we have set eyes on barbarian   regions far away, hidden in a blue transparency of light vapours, while our sails, loftily unfurled like clouds, day and night continues their course, rapid like that of a star,   traversing those savage waves.”  

Gavin refers to a different source for this inscription, but by the same J.J.L.Duyvendak, China’s Discovery of Africa, Probsthain, 1949, p. 29. It’s not clear just why Gavin picked this publication as it only contains parts, not the complete translation of the inscription. And, the entire translation is included in the Duyvendak  source mentioned above, “The True Dates ...”, at pp. 349-355, as well as a photograph of a rubbing of the entire inscription.

Ahem. The entire translation of the Changle tablet is also available on line at http://www.umn.edu/hist1012/primarysource.htm. This was posted and is maintained by the University of Minnesota, Department of History. Take a look. As you will see, the first part of the tablet is a general review of his accomplishments, and in part Zheng He writes:

            “... From the third year of the Yongle (1405) till now (1431) we have seven times      received the commission of ambassadors to the western ocean. The barbarian  countries which we have visited are: by way of Zhancheng (Champa), Zhaowa (Java),   Sanfoqi (Palembang) and Xianlo (Siam) crossing straight over to Xilanshan (Ceylon) in  South India, Guli (Calicut), and Kezhi (Cochin), we have gone to the western regions Hulumosi (Hormuz), Adan (Aden), Mugudushu (Mogadishu), altogether more than thirty countries large and small. We have traversed more than one hundred thousand li of             immense water spaces ...”

The tablet then relates the miracle wherein they were saved by the intervention and protection of  the goddess Tianfei, the Celestial Consort, and explains the goddess answered their prayers for protection on many other occasions. “It is not easy to enumerate completely all the cases where the goddess has answered (prayers) ...” 

After the summary of voyages, and the homage to Tianfei, the tablet concludes with some brief comments regarding each of the six voyages completed , and the seventh yet to come. As to the sixth voyage Zheng He wrote:

            “In the nineteenth year of Yongle (1421) commanding the fleet we conducted  ambassadors from Hulumosi (Ormuz) and the other countries who had been in attendance at the capital for a long time back to their countries. The kings of all the  countries prepared even more tribute than previously.”

What is important is what Zheng He did not write - nothing about discovering new countries, new continents, new worlds. We are confident that if his fleet had made such discoveries they would have been mentioned. Though ostensibly the tablets were erected by Zheng He to recognize the miraculous and numerous interventions by Tianfei, Levathes notes the following:

            “In addition, however, the tablets carefully documented the achievements of each    voyage, no doubt as Zheng He surely wished them to be remembered. But familiar as he  was by now with the court’s strong opposition to the voyages, he may have been unsure  how the official chroniclers would record  the expeditions.” ( Louise Levathes, When            China ruled The Seas, The treasure fleet Of The Dragon Throne, 1405-1433, 1994,  Oxford University Press, New York, p. 170.)

The tablets make it very clear that when Zheng He mentions he traveled more than 100,000 li, he is stating his cumulative total for his career of  seven voyages.  Note also in the second tablet, placed at  Changle, Zheng He clearly states he visited “...altogether more than thirty countries large and small...” What does Gavin put in his page 82 quote regarding the second tablet? He skips the part altogether about “more than thirty countries”; he leaves it out. And, as you might guess, he doesn’t include any of the language that specifically related to voyage number six. Contrary to what the author claims, Zheng He’s tablets make it clear nothing remarkable, nothing unexpected happened on the sixth voyage.

While the available translations of the two tablets are not word for word duplicates, they are quite similar in form and content, cover the same events and mention the same countries. The following comparisons, for example, are from T’oung Pao XXXIV, pp. 345-6, and 350, respectively.

            “(Jinghai)... On arriving in the outlying countries, those among the barbarian kings who  were obstructing the ‘transforming influence’ (of Chinese culture) and were disrespectful  we captured alive, and brigands who gave themselves over to violence and plunder we   exterminated. Consequently the searoute was purified and tranquilized and the natives,  owing to this, were enabled quietly to pursue their avocations. All this is due to the aid of  the goddess...”

            “(Changle)... When we arrived in the distant countries we captured alive those of the native kings who were not respectful and exterminated those barbarian robbers who were  engaged in piracy, so that consequently the searoute was cleansed and pacified and the     natives put their trust in it. All this is due to the favors of the goddess...”

You might also be interested to take a look at Ma Huan, Ying-Yai Sheng-Lan, The Overall Survey of the Ocean Shores, Beijing, 1433, Translated from the Chinese Text, Edited by Feng Ch’ eng-Chun, with introduction, notes and appendices by J. V. G. Mill, Cambridge University Press, Published for the Hakluyt Society, 1970, another source cited by Gavin. ( Ma Huan was an officially appointed translator and interpreter who accompanied the fleet on voyages four, six and seven, and kept a chronicle of the places visited, which was published in 1451.) In his introduction (pp.1-66) Mills comments on the life of Zheng He, includes general comments on the expeditions, and brief specific comments on each voyage. He also provides a list naming all the places the fleet possibly visited over the seven voyages, perhaps as many as thirty-seven. He writes, “ The principal list is that given by the Ming shih in the biography of Cheng Ho. But we cannot be sure that he personally visited all the thirty-seven countries mentioned ... It will be noticed that the list contains no places in the Philippine islands or Borneo, and that the farthest places mentioned are Java in the south, and Hormuz, Aden, and Malindi in the west ...(pp.19-20)”  

Mills also includes a discussion of the Mao K’un map and identifies most of the places mentioned. He suggests it dates to “about 1422”. If that is a correct date, we might expect to find navigation instructions to many of the countries around the world, which Gavin posits Zheng He discovered. They aren’t there. The farthest west that are identified with certainty are Mogadishu, Brava, Giumbo and Malindi ( Mozambique ) on the east coast of Africa, near the equator. Although no place south of Mozambique is on the map, Mills does suggest they “... may have  gone for another 300 miles to Sofala (20 0 13 / S) ...(footnote 1, p. 247)”

And then at page 90 Gavin writes:  

            “From the inscriptions on the carved stone erected by Zheng He in the Palace of the  Celestial Spouse at Lui-Chia-Chang, I knew they had sailed forty thousand miles

            ( 100,000 li ) on their sixth voyage-almost twice around the globe.” !

However, to repeat, as we know Zheng He claims he visited thirty some countries, total, and traveled more than 100,000 li, total, in all of his voyages. It was written in stone by the admiral himself.  And this is in accord with the chronicle of Ma Huan, as well as the official Ming shih biography of Zheng He, and the sailing instructions known as the Mao K’un map. These basic source records, which are united in their opposition to his claims, present an insuperable problem for Gavin and his fantasy.

Cape Verde inscription

At pages 102-3 Gavin writes:

            “It was highly probable that they [Chinese] had also left a stone on one of the Cape

            Verde Islands, carved with inscriptions in a language they thought people from the

            surrounding areas would understand ... found a large, free-standing stone near the coast at Janela. The stone still stands there today ... of red sandstone, some three metres high and        covered with inscriptions from top to bottom. The later carvings in medieval Portuguese, commemorating the death of a mariner, Antonio de Fez, but underneath them I could see    more calligraphy ...”  

Lichen was removed so the author could see the inscriptions better, photos were taken and sent to “experts at the Forrest of Steles in Xian, China.” They couldn’t identify the language. The author then faxed a copy of his picture to The Bank of India, and they advised it was Malayalam. This was wonderful news for the author, so elated, “... I punched the air in my excitement.” Excited because he knew it must be another piece of the evidence puzzle needed to support his grand theory. Malayalam was/is the language of the state of Kerala, on the southwest coast of India, which included the town of Calicut, the busiest port, which we know the Chinese routinely visited on their many voyages.

Does this make any sense at all, the Chinese would erect a stele on Cape Verde and carve the inscription in Malayalam? Who would it read? What would it say? Attention all you folks from Kerala, if you ever reach here, we were here first. Or just maybe mariners from Kerala did call at Janela, Cape Verde, and they carved the stele in their own language. That’s the simplest, most straight forward explanation - Occam’s Razor, the Law of Parsimony, etc. However, that possibility is not even considered since the stele could not then be a piece of evidence which Gavin desperately needs.  

The Congo  

At the bottom of Livingston Falls, near Matadi, The Congo, Gavin congers up another identical stone with the same sort of inscription, the same concentric designs, which he again attributes to the Chinese, evidence they sailed 83 miles up the Congo River (page 105). How many made that visit - two, fourteen, all of those monster size junks? That might have been a bit crowded. Would they have even considered sailing 83 miles up an unknown river channel? Those square rigged sail boats did much better running before the wind. For comments on their rigging and sailing characteristics see Menzies, 1421 The Year... “They sailed before the wind and the junk handled beautifully. But magnificent though these ships were, they had been designed to operate primarily between China and Africa, sailing before the monsoon winds ... for all practical purposes were constructed to sail before the wind - a severe limitation when outside the monsoon belt of the Indian Ocean and South China Sea (p. 64) ... The Chinese were sailing before the wind and current all the way (p. 106) ... Because of the shape of the Chinese junks, they would have had to sail before the wind (p. 109) ... But as his fleet entered the Pacific, the square-rigged junks would have met the cold Humboldt current and been swept northwards

(p. 161). Apparently Gavin forgot what he had written elsewhere, when he sent those mighty junks 83 miles up and down the Congo River.

And here we have an example of another facet of  Gavin’s style: only mention the interesting finds, but hide the tangible evidence from the reader. These stones are important pieces in his evidence trail and he refuses to share with the reader the same pictures he sent to the “experts at the Forrest of Steles in Zian”, and to The Bank of India. And he refuses to share the translation of the Malayalam inscription with the reader. We have no doubt he would have, had it supported his fantasy. And perhaps those thirty million present day speakers of Malayalam on the southwest coast of India would also be interested to learn of his amazing find.

North Island, New Zealand

At page 173 Gavin writes:

            “... On the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand...near the mouth of the Torei         Palma River at Whaingaroa...a huge stone carved in what local experts say is Tamil  calligraphy stands at the point where the river empties into a little harbor. In shape, size  and location this stone corresponds with those set up by the Chinese mariners in the  Yangtze estuary, at Dondra Head, at Cochin on the Malabar coast of India, at Janela in  the Cape Verde Islands and by the Matadi Falls in the Congo delta. In addition to the   calligraphy, the Ruapuke stone has the same patterns of concentric circles as the stone at

   Janela ...”

Gavin accepts the “local experts” advice that the calligraphy is Tamil. And, with a straight face insists again the Chinese armada of 1421 carved it and placed it there. And, what did this one  say? That might be interesting. I guess Gavin thought the inscription wasn’t very important. It probably just translated something like - Hello, all you folks from Tamilnadu. If you ever reach here, we were here first.

Inscriptions in Brazil

More carved stones are presented at page 173.  

            “I had already found a number of carved stones at sites visited by the Chinese fleets, so  my next step was an obvious one. Sure enough, a search on the internet soon revealed several more on the route from the Cape Verde Islands down to Patagonia, at Santa Catarina, Coral Island, Campeche and Arrorado(sic) Island on the east coast of South  America...each is also sited beside a watering place and overlooks the sea, and the  concentric circles inscribed on them match those at Ruapuke...”

Gavin doesn’t include any pictures of his evidence, but you may inspect these carved stones. Just go to www.bradshawfoundation.com, scroll down and click on Campeche Island. In addition to Campeche you will find pictures of the geometric petroglyphs at Arvorado, Coral, Little Sister and Santa Catarina Islands, Santa Catarina State, Brazil. Carbon dating of middens (refuse mounds) at Santa Catarina shows people living in the area for about 5,000 years. The petroglyphs have not been dated. However, note there are over 130 on Campeche alone. And, you can see the rocks show a variety of styles, designs and patterns that likely represent the output of a number of local prehistoric artists over many years. The technique is primitive and doesn’t reflect the level of skill attained by Chinese stone carvers in 1421. None of these were done by Gavin’s fantasy fleet. This is just more of his never ending nonsense.

Hong Kong inscriptions

And then at Page 175 Gavin finds even more carved stones, more alleged evidence of Chinese presence.  

            “The proof would be all the more conclusive if I could find  similar carved stones in   China. Another long search produced three more, at Wong Chuk Ha, Chang Zhou and Po Ti in Hong Kong. Again, these stones had similar markings to the ones I had already found. I now believed that the concentric circles were a ‘signature” agreed upon before  the armada set sail, denoting where each fleet had landed and watered ...”

Again Gavin refuses to provide the reader with any pictures of his “evidence”. But again, you may conger up the stones yourself. They are available at the web site of an official Hong Kong government agency, the Antiquities and Monuments Office, responsible for archaeology, historical buildings, education and publicity: http://www.amo.gov.hk/en/monuments.php. If you then click on ‘Hong Kong Island’ you will find Wong Chuk Hang. If you click ‘Outlying Islands’ you can see the carving at Cheung Chau and Po Toi. (Po Toi was the site of the denouement in The Honorable Schoolboy.)

There are several other carved rock sites. Be sure to also take a peek at Shek Pik, ‘Outlying Islands’. (www.amo.gov.hk/en/monuments_05.php.) Gavin neglected to mention this one. It includes the following note:

            “Most of the ancient rock carvings in the territory overlook the sea, but this one is about      300 meters from the coastline. However, it is believed that in the past, the sea inlet might have extended up to this point. The design shows geometric patterns composed of spiral squares and circles which closely resemble those on Bronze Age artifacts. It is thus quite safe to deduce that they were carved by early inhabitants of this area in the local Bronze Age some 3000 years ago.”

These stones the author has proffered as evidence date not to 1421 AD, when Gavin posits the Chinese were planting them all over the landscape - Cape Verde Islands, The Congo, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the east coast of South America - but, to 1000 BC, more or less, during the Bronze Age.

And we speculate that’s the reason pictures were not provided by Gavin: it would have then been too easy to identify his claimed evidence as bronze age artifacts, and thus not helpful at all, as he is only interested in proving a Chinese visit in 1421 AD. It seems Gavin is willing to hide and misrepresent his “evidence” to accomplish that goal.

Check it out for yourself: look at pictures of the carvings and read the notes. They are available on the internet.

Piri Reis

At page 114 Gavin introduces the Piri Reis map of 1513 stating:

            “... I had found an inscription on the southern part of the Piri Reis map stating: ‘ It is related by the Portuguese Infidel [Columbus] that in this place, night and day are, at their shortest period, of two hours duration, and at their longest phase of 22 hours.’ 2  For the winter daylight to have lasted only two hours, the man who originally drew the chart and made that note must have been in the deep southern tip at a latitude of about 60o s(outh),   well to the south of the southern tip of Tierra del Fuego. The map also shows what            appears to be ice connecting the tip of South America to Antarctica ...”

The Piri Reis map is available on line, it may be downloaded from http://www.prep.

mcneese.edu/engr/engr/engr321/preis/piri_r~1.htm.

Gavin’s note 2 refers to G.C. McIntosh, The Piri Reis Map of 1513 (Athens, Georgia, University of Georgia Press, 2000 ): p.46.

If you check McIntosh, page 46, you will find the translation of note VII, which does mention short days and long nights. But somehow the author happened to overlook and leave out part of the translation. The complete quote is:  

            “It is related by the Portuguese infidel that in this place night and day are, at their shortest   period, of two hours duration, and at their longest phase, of twenty-two hours. The day is  very warm and in the night there is much dew.”

Note VIII refers to a good anchorage yet further south, theoretically closer to Antarctica and colder, and in part states, “... They saw people walking, all of them naked. But they shot arrows, their tips made of fishbone. They stayed there eight days. They traded with the people by signs. That bark [boat] saw these lands and wrote about them which [illegible]. The said bark, without going to Hinde, returned to Portugal and gave the news. They send eight caravels. They described these coasts in detail and from these it is copied.”

Note IX relates, “And in this country it seems that there are white-haired monsters in this shape and also six-horned oxen. The Portuguese infidels have written it in their maps ...” McIntosh writes, page 48, “... This inscription is next to the image of a quadruped with six horns ...” You can see it clearly on the Piri Reis.

In between inscriptions IX and X, next to some islands, is written, “These islands are not inhabited, but spices are plentiful.”

Note X states, “This country is a waste. Everything is in ruin and it is said that large snakes are found here. For this reason the Portuguese infidels did not land on these shores and these shores are also said to be very hot.”  This inscription is next to the image of a snake.

So Gavin uses part of Note VII to launch a riff on how the Piri Reis shows Antarctica. However, the complete note and four following clearly contradict this hypothesis since it was warm and getting warmer. As the notes progress southward on the map the people went around naked, spices were plentiful and then, there were lots of snakes, which don’t do well in the cold. This doesn’t support  the “drift ice” and freezing Antarctica claim Gavin congers up from his fertile imagination. McIntosh has a chapter, ‘The Southern Continent’, pp. 48-68, devoted to this misunderstood coastline, which concludes, “... As with many depiction’s on fifteenth and sixteenth-century maps, such as cities, peoples, animals, rivers, mountains, or geography, a coastline does not necessarily guarantee reality.” And Coughi (below) suggests it is not Antarctica across the bottom of the map, but, Argentina.

At page 116 Gavin names the first of “five creatures depicted on the map.” You can see these clearly, just to the right of note V.  He first identifies one of them as a, “... deer with prominent horns ... clearly a huemil, an Andean deer, with the head and antlers accurately depicted ...”

The truth is this is a drawing of a well known mythical creature, a yale. A drawing is available at http://www.eaudry.com.myth.yale.htm. In the characterization drawn on the Piri Reis this is the one with the antlers which look like a very early model table top TV antenna. According to the web site,“... the horns can move at will, to face different directions ...” Just like those ancient TV antennas. For more see Wilma George, “The Yale”, Journal of the Warburg and Courtland Institutes 31 (1968): 425.

Second,  Gavin mentions the creature just above the yale, but he incorrectly claims it is:

            “... a guanaco. Guanacos are members of the camel family. They have curious, floppy         ears which are bent forwards when they are excited or anxious. Andean people decorate  guanacos’ ears with red tassels in the same way we would plait a horse’s mane. From a  side view, the bent ears resemble forward-pointing horns. Clearly, the cartographer who copied the original chart mistook the bent ears for horns ...”

Another charming riff  that sounds informed and authoritative, but in truth is just a lot of nonsense. The cartographer drew exactly what he intended, a bonnacon, another mythical creature. If you look closely you can see what looks like two tails. One of them may not be a tail. See www.eaudry.com/myth/bonnacon.htm, and also read the description and notes. “An asian animal, like a bison, that emits noxious vapors from its rear if attacked. These vapors can cover 3 acres, and will burn trees in is path ... has curled horns that cannot hurt anyone.” Also if you look carefully at the creature on the map it has ears in addition to at least one curled horn on top of its head.  This is obviously not a guanaco. Guanacos have no horns.  Pictures of the guanaco are available on the net. You will see the guanaco has longer legs and a longer neck than any of these mythical monsters and no horns.

The third monster, he claims, is a mountain lion. That must be the skinny little guy with the long neck and curly tail to the south. McIntosh, op.cit., page 43, includes a translation of the nearby inscription, “They call this beast Sami”, but offers no further identification.  We speculate it is another mythical creature, but can’t identify it.

The fourth creature is the naked, bearded man. Gavin takes another wrong turn and explains:

            “At first glance he appears to have his head in the middle of his body, but on closer examination it seems perfectly possible that he had been drawn in a crouching position, allowing his thick beard to cover his genitals. I surmised the Turkish cartographer who copied the captured Portuguese chart onto the Piri Reis was almost certainly a Muslim. Muslims are very conservative about exposing their bodies; if the cartographer had indeed been of that faith, he would not have been comfortable depicting naked men.”

The truth is the little fellow isn’t crouching down to cover his privates with his beard. He just doesn’t have a head. He doesn’t have a neck either. His face is on his chest. He’s another one of those mythical characters, a blemyae. If you go to http://www.diegocuoghi.it/Piri_Reis /PiriR_eng.htm there is a picture on the first page, of a blemyae, a skiapod (one leg with a big foot) and a one-eyed giant. This site contains as well a discussion of the Piri Reis map. The writer, Diego Cuoghi, gives his reasons for suggesting that the coastline of at least present day Argentina was twisted to the right about 90o to fit it on the piece of deer skin available to the cartographer. That’s not Antarctica across the bottom of the map, but Argentina.

You might also be amused to read Baudolino by Umberto Eco (Harcourt, 2000). Many mythical creatures and events are introduced by Eco, including the skiapod, with one leg and an extra large foot, satyrs, the roc - an enormous black bird, and Prester John. In fact, I think I can see Prester John on the Piri Reis, just above the ostrich, in Africa, one of the places he was thought to reside, though never found, anywhere.

Eco describes the blemmy at pp. 365-6:

            “... The creature, with very broad shoulders, was hence very squat, but with slim waist,  two legs, short and hairy, and no head, or even a neck. On his chest, where most men   have nipples, there were two almond-shaped eyes, darting, and, beneath a slight swelling with two nostrils, a kind of circular hole, very ductile, so that when he spoke he made it  assume various shapes, according to the sounds it was emitting ...”

The fifth creature, Gavin correctly surmises, is the well-known, but mythical, dog-headed man, the cynocephali. These were favored by cartographers to decorate maps. You can see two other dog headed creatures on the map, a little north west of the sitting cynocephali, dancing hand in hand. But, then the author sails off the chart again and decides, again, the cartographer didn’t know what he was doing, that the dog-headed man was really a mylodon.  

Gavin quotes the Piri Reis at page 116, “These beasts attain a length of seven spans ... Between their eyes there is a distance of one span [the distance between the outspread tips of the thumb and the little finger]. Yet it is said they are harmless souls.” The author claims this is one of two inscriptions describing the cynocephali. Not true. He’s pulling your leg. That inscription is right on top of the blemyae. He could wear it as a hat, if he had a head. If a span is approximately nine inches, then their height is about 5’3”, which includes a large chest face, and one span, nine inches, between the eyes seems just right.

Mylodons

Armed with this information Gavin calls several museums, with a query, “I’m looking for a monster twice the size of a human,” and he learns of the mylodon.  But why ask for a creature twice the size when his selected evidence suggests it was no larger than a human? Because he  needs a larger creature to fit a legend that appears later on in his  book, in New Zealand. He called four museums before he found a stuffed mylodon.  

His riff on the mylodon goes on for pages, even suggesting:

             “... in recent years, well preserved pieces of this creature, apparently butchered by the local people, have been found in a cave, leading to the speculation that it may still exist in the wilds of Patagonia (p. 120).”

You may check it out. See the article at http://www.unmuseum.org.sloth.htm. Remember the author wrote, ‘in recent years’. Truth is the remains found in Eberhardt’s cave in 1895 have since been carbon dated. “Dung found in the cave was more than 10,000 years old. The skin was estimated to be 5,000 years old. Conditions in the caves may have preserved it making it look fresh to the eye and fooling Ameglino. No additional evidence has turned up that the giant sloth survives today ...”

Why would the author even include such transparent nonsense, resurrecting an extinct mylodon? We suggest Gavin doesn’t have any real evidence and he’s desperate. He’s setting up his “evidence” for a Chinese visit to New Zealand later, where a pair of the these long extinct animals allegedly escape from  the Chinese, and later on, he maintains, were the basis for a local legend. So therefore the Chinese must have picked up the mylodons first, as they passed by South America, so they could escape later in New Zealand.  See the following at page 172:

            “The Chinese would have had to claw their way back against the current; as they did so,     at least two of the great treasure ships were lost. The wreck of an old wooden ship was      found two centuries ago at Dusky Sound in Fjordland at the south-west tip of New     Zealand’s South Island. It was said to be very old and of Chinese build and ‘to have been there before Cook’, according to the local people.10...”

The source cited in endnote 10 is Robyn Gossett, New Zealand Mysteries, Auckland, 1996, p. 31. In the U.S. this book is a rare item, but I eventually was able to track it down. Gossett explains it was not “local people” but the Maori who were keeper of the legend. Gossett devoted three pages to her detailed exploration of the legend, which included access to the log of Captain Robert Murry (sic), who had been fourth officer on the ship. The wreck was not Chinese at all, rather, an English ship, the Endeavour, that went down in 1795.

            “By the time the ship reached Dusky Sound the Endeavour was in a bad way, and after a    thorough inspection the officers and crew came to the only possible conclusion: the  Endeavour would have to be abandoned ... So the old Endeavour remained. Not worth   salvaging, she became a sort of spare-parts store, name unknown, just another wreck until imagination and rumor made her one of the mystery ships of the New Zealand coast.”

So when Gavin suggests it was an old Chinese wreck, he’s just pulling your leg. He knows better, since he obviously read Gossett, he quoted her [in part], and cited her. Also at page 172 see the following:

            “A Sydney packet visited Dusky Sound in 1831 and two sailors from the crew ‘saw a  strange animal perching at the edge of the bush and nibbling the foliage. It stood on its  hind legs, the lower part of its body curving to a thick pointed tail and when they took   note of the height it reached against the trees allowing a metre and a half for the tail, they    estimated it stood nearly nine metres in height. The men were windward of the animal   and were able to watch it feeding for some time before it spotted them. They watched it pull down a heavy branch with comparative ease, turn it over and tilt it up to reach the  leaves it wanted’11... The animal described corresponds in size, posture and eating habits with the mylodons the Chinese could have taken aboard in Patagonia ...”

And you may ask, what’s wrong with a kangaroo for this leaf eating assignment - perhaps one was visiting for the weekend from Australia. But, that  misses the point. Since it was the Chinese who discovered South America, it is only they who could have brought a mylodon, since we have been informed by Gavin they picked up a pair in Patagonia en passant.

Or, is Gavin once more fiddling with his source material.

Gavin’s endnote 11 refers to three sources. First is Rex Gilroy, Pyramids in the Pacific, Gympie, Australia 1999, no page number provided!  I couldn’t find a trace of this obscure publication. However, we speculate the subject matter is the same as source two, Brett J. Green (an Edgar Cayce devotee), The Gympie Pyramid Story, Gympie, Australia, 2000, again no page number. I read this tract from cover to cover and there was no mention of the nine meter tall mylodons, not even any nine feet tall. Regarding the Gympie Pyramid contretemps, we credit Green with including a couple of pages on the skeptics’ view, including their conclusions that , “... the Gympie Golden pyramid is actually an ordinary hill terraced by early Italian immigrants for viniculture that had been disfigured by erosion and the ... removal of stone from the retaining walls for use elsewhere. At the end, all we are left with is a terraced hill, some interesting artefacts, a number of wildly different ungrounded speculations ...(p. 82)”

Source three is Robyn Gossett, op. cit., p. 148. Gossett debunks a lot of weird New Zealand legends. See above where Gavin writes, “A Sydney packet visited Dusky sound in 1831 and two sailors from the crew ‘saw a strange animal ...’ ”  Just preceding that Gossett writes:

            “Even more bizarre was a story, also reported to the Collector of Customs in Sydney when the Sydney Packet returned home in 1831. One of the ship’s gangs which had been stationed in Dusky Sound told of the discovery of an enormous animal of the kangaroo   species.”

And continuing the quote above by Gavin, Gossett wrote:

            “When it finally saw them, the animal stood watching the men for a short time, then  made one almighty leap from the edge of the bush towards the water’s edge. There it  landed on all fours but immediately stood erect before making another great leap into the  water. The men were able to measure the first jump and found it had covered twenty  yards. They watched the animal plough its way down the Sound at tremendous speed, its wake extending from one side of the Sound to the other ...”

            “Here again one is tempted to think the rum was talking, and for an Australian going

            away from home for months on end, what other animal would stir the imagination but  a kangaroo?...”

So Gavin was indeed diddling his source material again. The mysterious animal was named a kangaroo and jumped like a kangaroo in Gavin’s source, but he just left that part out since it wasn’t congruent with his mylodons across the ocean fable.

The author is a marvelous magician. In addition to transforming a number of well known mythical creatures into present day fauna; and a blemyae into an embarrassed Muslim; he changed a mythical, dog-headed man  into a nine foot tall, long extinct mylodon and transported a pair of them, in 1421, from Argentina  to New Zealand, where at least one issue grew to nine meters by the time he claims it was last observed in 1831.

Should the writer of such amazing nonsense be taken seriously by anyone?

Waldseemuller Map  

At page 200 Gavin introduces the Waldseemuller map as evidence the Chinese fleet visited the Pacific coast of North America first. His reasoning goes like this: The Waldseemuller map was produced in 1507; and according to Gavin, shows west coast geographic/topographic features which could not have been provided by any European explorer since Hernando de Alarcon was the first, and he didn’t arrive until 1540; thus, Waldseemuller must have copied the west coast information from a map earlier than de Alarcon; therefore, the source must have been a chart derived from the Chinese fleet, sailing around the world in 1421.  

At page 200 Gavin writes:

            “The globe and wall maps made in 1507 and 1516 are the first ever to call the continent   ‘America’. The map, Carta Marear - A Portuguese Navigational Seachart of the Known   Earth and Oceans, was ‘the first and only printed version of the world charts previously   known only to Spanish and Portuguese explorers and their patrons’.2 ...”

That is not correct. Only the 1507 map showed the continent as ‘America’, not the 1516 version. By 1516 Waldseemuller was apparently no longer as keen about giving Vespucci so much credit.

The endnote 2 refers to Peter Whitfield, Newfound Lands: Maps in the History of Exploration, British Library, 1998, pp. 54-5. If you look at those pages you will find nothing about Carta Marear, nor any of the quote; nothing about the Waldseemuller map at all. At page 62 Whitfield introduces Vespucci, and Waldseemuller at page 64. I searched this section and more, in vain, for the language reported by Gavin. It’s not there. We suspect Gavin mixed up his source material and cited the wrong one.

Columbus believed until he died that he had discovered the West Indies, or at least he took that position publicly and with his patrons. After all, that’s what they were paying him to find. Amerigo Vespucci with his pamphlet Mundus Novus (The New World) convinced many geographers, including Waldseemuller, that the previous discoveries to the west were not the West Indies, nor part of eastern Asia, nor just islands, but a separate continent. That shift in thinking required adjustments by the geographers. A new continent  required a coast on the west side separated from Asia by an ocean. And that is what Waldseemuller believed, and what he drew - a conjecture, a hypothetical “Pacific coast”, due to his new set of beliefs, based on Mundus Novus; as yet not proven by anyone’s sighting of that west coast. And that is why it is labeled “unknown land” and doesn’t contain any detail, in contrast to the east coast.

Gavin has provided a picture of the Waldseemuller map in the third group of photos. It makes a nice two-page, color display. However, it is so small that any detail is difficult to see. Ahem. Fortunately, the map is now available on the internet. You may go to the Library of Congress site at http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/lewisandclark/images/ree0001/jpg,  and there you will find a large size file of the map. You may download the charts and print out enlargements of the three parts which show the details of the Pacific coasts of North and South America.

On the lower part of South America, below the bird, and touching the Tropic of Capricorn you will see “America”, the first such usage, and Waldseemuller’s homage to Amerigo Vespucci. You will also notice geographic detail and many place names on the east coast, in contrast to none on the west coast.

Waldseemuller wrote a short book to accompany the 1507 map. Its complete title is Introduction to Cosmography  With Certain Necessary Principles of Geometery and Astronomy  to which are added  THE FOUR VOYAGES OF AMERIGO VESPUCCI  A Representation of the Entire World, both in the Solid and Projected on the Plane, Included also lands which were Unknown to Ptolemy, and have been Recently Discovered.

            “Now, these parts of the earth have been more extensively explored and a fourth part has     been discovered by Amerigo Vespucci ( as will be set forth in what follows ). Inasmuch  as both Europe and Asia received their names from women, I see no reason why any one should justly object to calling this part Amerige, i.e., the land of Amerigo, or America,  after Amerigo, its discoverer, a man of great ability. Its position and the customs of its    inhabitants may be clearly understood from the four voyages of Amerigo, which are    subjoined.” (Cosmographiae Introductio by Martin Waldseemuller and the English             translation of Joseph Fischer and Franz von Wieser  [Ann Arbor, 1996, University    Microfilms, Inc., A Subsidiary of Xerox Corporation, reprinted from U. S. Catholic  Historical Society, Monograph IV, by permission of the society]: p. 70.)

Also in the lower left hand corner of the Waldseemuller map is a box which contains the following text, further recognition of Vespucci’s travels, and his influence on Waldseemuller.

            “A general delineation of the various lands and islands, including some of which the  ancients make no mention, discovered lately between 1497 and 1504 in four voyages over the seas, two by Fernando of Castile, and two by Manuel of Portugal, most serene    monarchs, with Amerigo Vespucci as one of the navigators and officers of the fleet; and       especially a delineation of many places hitherto unknown. All this we have carefully  drawn on the map, to furnish true and precise geographical knowledge.”

Still at page 200 Gavin continues:

            “... The west coast of North America from modern Canada to the equator is drawn boldly     and clearly on the map ... (p 201) The Pacific coast of America is strikingly drawn on the  Waldseemuller chart and the latitudes correspond to those of Vancouver Island in  Canada right down to Ecuador in the south ... Oregon is clearly identifiable ... (p 414)   The Waldseemuller map clearly depicts the island [Vancouver Island].”

Take another look at those nice large copies of the map you printed out, see if you can  recognize any of those landmarks - Vancouver Island, Oregon, Ecuador. These are the landmarks that Gavin claims Waldseemuller copied from hypothetical, unnamed Chinese source maps. Nothing there, right?  Gavin must have thought you wouldn’t take the time to look, that you would have been carried along on the tide of his reassuring, confident, boldly written words.

The fact is Vancouver Island, Canada, Oregon, Ecuador, none of it is discernible on the Waldseemuller map. Gavin is pulling your leg. The fact is Waldseemuller didn’t draw it for us to see. He didn’t draw any place on the west side of North and South America. He didn’t have any data on that coast, from the Chinese, nor from anyone else, and what he drew was a nondescript, generic line, and marked it, both North and South, “TERRA ULTRA INCOGNITO” - unknown land. 

In spite of Waldseemuller’s explicit disclaimer, Gavin continues to see features in the map that are not there. Gavin doesn’t have any  special issue, top secret, submarine captain’s glasses, nor any unique expertise or training that permits him to see what you and I can’t. What he seems to have in abundance is chutzpah. At page 208 he writes:

            “After emerging from the bay [San Francisco], Zhou Man’s fleet would have been carried  southwards by the wind and current to New Mexico ... ”

New Mexico! I wonder who signed off on the proof sheets. Evidently, no one.

            “The Waldseemuller map shows the coast with reasonable accuracy, charted just as one    would expect from a ship passing by, but there is a gap in the latitude of the Gulf of Tehuantepec in Guatemala ... ”

The same mister nobody must have signed off on, “... the Gulf of Tehuantepec in Guatemala.” Someone should notify the Government of Mexico their gulf has been expropriated.

At page 209 Gavin recognizes on the map 300 miles of coastline between Manzanillo and Acapulco, “ ... clearly shown on the Waldseemuller map.” Do you see it? Of course not. Does anyone? No.

How about Gavin, does he see it?  No, he doesn’t see anything either, he’s just pulling your leg again, making up more of his “overwhelming evidence”.

Oregon junk

Gavin writes at page 201:

            “... Oregon is clearly identifiable, and several very old wrecks have been discovered there     on the beach at Neahkahnie. One was of teak with a pulley for hoisting sails made of     caeophyllum, a wood unique to south-east Asia. The wood has yet to be carbon dated, but  if it proves to be from the early fifteenth century it will provide strong circumstantial evidence that one of Zhou Man’s junks was wrecked in Neahkahnie Bay. Some  examiners of the wreckage there claim to have found paraffin wax, which was used by             Zheng He’s fleet to desalinate sea-water for the horses.

            Even without finds from wrecked junks ...”

When I read this I was intrigued. The site is only about sixty miles south of me. I called, made an appointment, drove down and spoke with Wayne Jensen, the curator of the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum. There are artifacts from two shipwrecks, beeswax from one and a pulley from the other. Mr. Jensen remembered having received a call from Gavin in 2002, and in addition they exchanged e-mail.

Wayne told Gavin the pulley had already been carbon dated (in 1993) to 1595. Various pieces of the beeswax dated from 1500 to 1650.

Oregon was not on the intended route of the Spanish trade galleons that traveled between the Philippines and Acapulco during the period 1565 - 1815, but storms and error sometimes forced them off their chosen path. Thirty three galleons were lost over the years.

There is a National Geographic article (“Track of the Manila Galleons”, Sept 1990, pp. 1-41) that includes a two-page illustration ( “Route of the Treasure Fleet”, pp. 12-13) showing the path of choice led from Manila to Cape Mendocino on the west coast of North America and then south along the coast to Acapulco.

            “(p.35)... First landfall, which seemed like a dream after so many months at sea, was often Cape Mendocino in northern California. Skirting the foggy, rockbound cape, the  galleon pilots sighted Point Reyes, from which they steered offshore again to avoid the  Farallons, passing Point Pinos at the south end of Monterey Bay. They traversed the  Santa Barbara Channel and the Channel Islands, sailed along Baja California to Cape Corrientes and on south to their destination at Acapulco.

            In this homestretch, people weakened by disease began to die in large numbers. In one  17th-century galleon three or four deaths a day occurred after the señas. Then, as the   rhythm of mortality increased, 92 died in 15 days. When they at last arrived at Acapulco,  only 192 of the 400 who had embarked in Cavite remained alive; many of them were  woefully weak. But there were worse tales ...”

Mr. Jensen is confident the pulley is from one of these Spanish trade galleons, and the missing San Augustin is his choice for the assignment. In 1895 the remains of a wreck at Nehalem spit were exposed, men were down in the hull digging out beeswax and found the pulley. They had been scavenging and taking off boards for years. One fellow used the wood to make canes which he sold to finance his treasure hunt on Neahkahnie Mountain, and one of those canes is on display at the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum. Subsequent wave and surf action covered the remains until they briefly “came to light” again in 1929.

A great deal of beeswax has been recovered from the nearby coast over many years, large and small chunks, and boxes of candles. A pollen study done by the University of Oregon revealed the source of the beeswax, northern Luzon in the Philippines, where there is a certain variety of holly the bees visited for pollen. Large chunks of the beeswax, one with 1679 carved in it, and candles are on permanent display at the Museum.

In his book Gavin lists no footnotes keyed to his statements made on page 201. At page 520, under the heading  “ Select Bibliography ”, he lists a number of publications, including  Anon., Tales of the Neahkahnie Treasure, prepared by the Nehalem Valley Historical Society Treasure Committee, 1991, published by the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum. Tales includes summaries and statements by several of the other sources on Gavin’s “Select Biography”: Sam J. Cotton, Ruby El Hult and Don M. Vines; and also “The Lost English Claim to the Northwest”, by Wayne Jensen. An article titled “The Beeswax Ship And The Treasure Ship” includes the following (pp. 5-6):

            “... Ships leaving Manila caught the tradewinds by sailing north out of the Philippines on  a northerly course between Japan and the Marianas, then easterly along a sliding route of 31 to 44 degrees latitude. But capricious tradewinds and storms often forced vessels off their charted courses ...

            “Spanish archives list thirty-three vessels as having been lost on these crossings. Ten of  those ships were listed as missing at “unknown locations.” Evidences of shipwreck  abound on the Oregon Coast. In 1929 a wreck on Nehalem spit came to light and excited  the attention of the British Vice-Consul at Astoria, E.M.Cherry. The cost of excavating  was beyond the means of any interested parties and soon the sands reclaimed what they had briefly revealed ...  

            “There are several possibilities for the beeswax shipwreck believed to be the remains of a    lost Manila galleon; The San Juanillo, lost in 1576 and the San Juan lost in 1586. The   San Antonio, last seen in 1603 and never heard from again, lies in an unknown location  which could be in Oregon waters. The San Francisco Xavier, which sailed in 1705, was known to carry beeswax and to be making for landfall on the North American coast. The  San Jose, sailing from San Blas, June 16, 1769, is believed by many historians to lie at  the foot of Neahkahnie Mountain ...”

Most of the sources listed by Gavin are devoted to the theory that Sir Francis Drake was in the area in 1579, surveying and claiming the territory for England. This may well be true. However, it has no bearing on the author’s claim the Chinese left a wrecked junk there in 1421.

Sometimes Gavin’s writing is awkward and confusing. For example, although “The wood has yet to be carbon dated” follows directly after and seems to relate to “sails made of caeophyllum(sic), a wood unique to south-east Asia.”, that could not be correct since no calophyllum has ever been found there. What he must be referring to is the pulley block, even though, as noted above, that has been carbon dated to 1595, and is not of calophyllum.

Also note, Gavin calls the beeswax, in error, “paraffin wax”, and suggests it was, “...used by Zheng He to desalinate sea-water for the horses.” Regarding the beeswax, at page 5 of Tales you will find:

            “... A long-dead bee found in one piece, plus the correct melting temperature of the  substance, proved that it was beeswax and not the mineral wax ozokerite, as some had  claimed. Small pieces of wax are still occasionally found. About 10 tons of wax has been   uncovered, from False Tillamook Head (Cape Falcon) on the north to Cape Mears on the  south. The U.S.Geological Survey says it is beeswax.”

Also see James A. Gibbs, Jr., Shipwrecks of the Pacific Coast (Binfords & Mort, Publishers, Portland, Oregon): 109-110:

    &n