How Not to (Re)Write World History

How Not to (Re)WriteWorld History:
Gavin Menzies
Discovery
and the Chinese
of America
ROBERT
FINLAY
1421: The Year China Discovered America
(2002), Gavin Menzies
on
a
to
rewrite
world
He maintains
scale.
that
In aspires
history
grand
to
four Chinese
at
and
least
fleets, comprising
twenty-five
thirty ships
7,000 persons
each, visited
every part of the world
except Europe
between
1421 and 1423. Trained
by Zheng He, the famous eunuch
admiral, Chinese
captains carried out the orders of Zhu Di (r. 1402
third
the
settle new territories,
1424),
Ming emperor, to map coastlines,
to Menzies,
and establish a global maritime
empire. According
proof of
the passage of the Ming fleets to the Americas,
Australia, New Zealand,
is overwhelming
and Polynesia
and indisputable.
His "index of sup
evidence"
includes
thousands of items from the
porting
(pp. 429-462)
fields of archaeology,
and anthropology;
his
astronomy,
cartography,
and bibliography
footnotes
include publications
in Chinese,
French,
and Hebrew.
Italian, German, Arabic,
Spanish,
claims that Chinese
mariners
the islands of Cape
explored
the
the
and
the
Verde,
Azores,
Bahamas,
Falklands;
they established
in Australia,
colonies
New
British Columbia,
Zealand,
California,
Puerto Rico, and Rhode
Mexico,
Island; they introduced horses to the
to South America,
rice to California,
chickens
coffee to
Americas,
sea otters to New
Puerto Rico, South American
sloths to Australia,
to the Philippines.
and maize
seamen
In addition, Chinese
Zealand,
toured the temples and palaces of the Maya
center of Palenque
in
hunted walruses and smelted copper in Greenland,
mined
for
Mexico,
in northern Australia,
lead and saltpeter
and established
trading posts
for diamonds
and its tributaries.
along the Amazon
Portuguese,
Menzies
Journal ofWorld History, Vol. 15, No. 2
? 2004 by University
of Hawai'i Press
229
JOURNAL
230
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
JUNE
2OO4
a veritable
as Menzies
that he has collected
believes
Inasmuch
some
about
mountain
of evidence, he is not disheartened
by skepticism
assertions. As he told People Magazine
of his astonishing
(24 February
list, "[t]here's not
2003) after 1421 hit the New York Times bestseller
one chance
that I'm wrong!" He regards his inves
in a hundred million
a
as
an
website
yet
(www.1421.tv)
ongoing
project:
provides
tigation
in the forthcoming
will appear
further revelations
a
is assisting him
team
of
researchers
and
edition,
currently
paperback
for added
documents
and
in combing medieval
Portuguese
Spanish
be
will
he
informs
the
contentions.
his
of
reader,
1421,
published
proof
a PBS series is in production,
and tele
in more than sixteen countries,
more
evidence,
rights have been sold around the world.
who ignore evi
historians
of professional
is contemptuous
Menzies
it
in the Americas,
influence
dence of Chinese
"presumably because
the accepted wisdom on which not a few careers have been
contradicts
that
information
that he has uncovered
based" (p. 232). He explains
even though it was right
of China,
has eluded many eminent historians
vision
I knew how to interpret the extraordi
their eyes, "only because
that
reveal
the course and the extent of the voy
and
charts
nary maps
fleets
between
Chinese
the
of
1421 and 1423" (pp. n-12).
ages
great
he has
in the British Royal Navy,
commander
A former submarine
and
Ferdinand
in
of
the
sailed
wake
Columbus,
Magellan,
Christopher
who
that
those
hence
he
mariners,
navigated
recognizes
James Cook,
in hand, were themselves merely
with copies of Chinese
maps
sailing
before
in the backwash
of Zheng He's fleets (pp. 9, 12).
Menzies
intends his work for the general reader, and his style is vig
orous, clear, and informal. Most
strikingly, he makes his own search for
for recounting
framework
fleets the narrative
of the Ming
evidence
and triumphs as he
He describes his frustrations
their achievements.
sometimes
"an elusive trail of evidence,"
travels everywhere
following
to
narrative
never
his
He
also
defeated
but
brings
(p. 83).
discouraged
of
own
the
fleets
in
visited
his
life by recounting
by
experiences
places
rum toddies and roast lobster on Guade
Zheng He, including savoring
braving the dangers of the Great Barrier Reef of Aus
loupe beaches,
into the South Atlantic.
the Cape of Good Hope
tralia, and rounding
is that the author's
of these frequent vignettes
The underlying message
are
validated
conclusions
experi
by the unique personal
astonishing
account of
ence he brings to his research as well as by his transparent
for
This approach makes
how he struggled toward those conclusions.
attract
who
oth
a lively, engaging work that surely will
many readers
enter
tome on Chinese maritime
erwise would never open a 500-page
prise and European
exploration.
Finlay: Gavin Menzies
and the Chinese
Discovery
of America
231
by 1421 is that there are big bucks in
good news conveyed
an advance of ?500,000
received
world history: Menzies
($825,000)
runs to 100,000 cop
initial printing
from his British publisher, whose
ies. The bad news is that reaping such largesse evidently
requires pro
as 1421. Menzies
flouts the basic rules of
ducing a book as outrageous
the schol
both historical
study and elementary
logic. He misrepresents
arship of others, and he frequently fails to cite those from whom he bor
as seen in
rows.1 He misconstrues
Chinese
imperial policy, especially
The
discussion
of Western
the expeditions
of Zheng He, and his extensive
reads like a parody of scholarship. His allegations
cartography
regard
di Conti
the only figure in 1421 who links
(c. 1385-1469),
ing Nicol?
fic
the Ming voyages with European
events, are the stuff of historical
of sources. The
tion, the product of an obstinate misrepresentation
of the technology
of Zheng He's ships impels
author's misunderstanding
to depict voyages no captain would attempt and no mariner
could
excursion
the
Arctic
and
circle
survive, including a 4,000-mile
along
more
of
Pacific
after
the
sailed
than
circumnavigation
having already
toWest Africa,
from China
South America,
42,000 miles
Australia,
New Zealand,
and the Philippines
199-209,
311).2
(pp.
as an innocent
himself
abroad,
Portraying
forthrightly
seeking
him
1 For
(Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cul
Judith A. Carney
example,
although
in the Americas
2000])
[Cambridge, Mass:
regards rice as part of the Columbian
were the principal
in bringing
and argues that sub-Sanaran
Africans
rice
agents
Exchange
to the Americas
cites her in support of the notion
cultivation
after 1492, Menzies
that
introduced
the grain to the New World
Zheng He's mariners
(pp. 206, 506, n. 4). He also
a quotation
from a Chinese
novel discussed
appropriates
by J. J. L. Duyvendak
("Desultory
tivation
notes
on the Hsi-Yang Chi," T'oung Pao 42 [1954]: 26-35)
to declare
that Persian pottery
given to Zheng He actually was "eggshell-thin"
porcelain made by the Maya of Mexico
(pp.
continues
in the paperback
this practice
edition
162, 214). Menzies
(2002) of his book. He
credits the present writer with providing
him with evidence
that da Gama
reported a Chi
nese "fleet of 800 sail" in India at the time of Zheng He (pp. 512, 547, 552). This assertion
is based on a publication?not
makes no such claim about
correctly cited by Menzies?that
a da Gama
fleet, or an armada of 800 ships. See Robert Finlay, "The Trea
report, a Chinese
in the Age of Discovery,"
Maritime
of Zheng He: Chinese
Terrae
sure-Ships
Imperialism
1-12.
The Journal for the History
of Discoveries
23 (1991);
Incognitae:
2 There
is no space here to discuss how Menzies's
characterization
of Zheng He's ves
sels as lumbering,
broad-beamed
tubs equipped
with
sails?and
therefore
square-rigged
to sail before
the wind"
"constrained
(pp. 64, 65, 96, 109, 161, 163, 181, 209, 240)?is
integral to his claim that he can track the global course of the voyages by focusing on pre
makes
Chinese
(see p. 83). As Needham
clear, however,
vailing winds and currents
ships
a balanced
device
that allows a ship to make head
employed
lug-sail, a highly aerodynamic
to 34o for a modern
in
way at 45o to windward
(Science and Civilisation
(compared
yacht)
see also Christian
"Chinese
China, vol. 4, pt. 3, pp. 594-599);
J. Buys and Sheli O. Smith,
Batten Lug Sails," The Mariners
66 (1980):
Mirror
its relevance
to his
233-246.
Despite
did not consult any of the literature that has corrected
argument, Menzies
earlier,
apparently
exaggerated
estimates
of the dimensions
of Zheng
He's
vessels.
See
especially
Richard
A.
232
JOURNAL
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
JUNE
2OO4
or suppressed, Men
truths the academic
establishment
has disregarded
zies in fact is less an "unlettered
Ishmael" than a Captain Ahab,
gripped
to bend everything
to his purposes. His White Whale
is
by a mania
Eurocentric
which
celebrates
Columbus
and
thief
(a
historiography,
and Vasco da Gama
fraud, pp. 382-383)
(a terrorist, p. 406) without
the
deeds
of
the Chinese.
More gener
epic
realizing they merely
aped
an
in
echo
of
laments
Menzies,
ally,
unacknowledged
Joseph Needham,
"mistress of the world," with Confucian
that China
did not become
benevolence
and Buddhist
Instead, the
uniting humankind.
harmony
on Chinese
and
barbaric
West,
cruel,
secretly
capitalizing
fraudulently
around the globe (pp. 405-406).3
achievements,
imposed its dominion
no doubt
The wounded
of Eurocentricism
leviathan
deserves
it. Exami
another harpoon,
but 1421 is too leaky a vessel to deliver
nation of the book's central claims reveals they are uniformly without
substance: first, that the 1421-1423
describes
could
voyages Menzies
no
not have taken place; second, that Conti
in
transmit
role
played
to European cartographers;
of Chinese
and
ting knowledge
exploration
Menzies's
all
evidence
for
the
of
the
that
fleets
Chinese
third,
presence
abroad is baseless.
on what Menzies
terms "the missing
1421 concentrates
years" of
the sixth voyage of Zheng He, that is, the two and a half years between
the fleets of Zheng He
1423, during which
1421 and October
not
in the well
is
Menzies
roamed
the
interested
globe.
supposedly
and
he
much-studied
of
known,
voyages
ignores the exten
Zheng He,
sive literature on them.4 He dispenses with six of the seven expeditions
March
U.K.:
and the Social History
2000), pp. 193-198;
Gould, Archaeology
of the Ship (Cambridge,
in the Ming Navy,"
"The Liao and the Displacement
of Ships
Andr? Wegener
Sleeswyk,
82 (1996):
The Mariner's Mirror
Barker, "The Size of the 'Treasure Ships'
3-13; Richard
Donald
H. Keith
The Mariners' Mirror
and Other Chinese
Vessels,"
75 (1989):
273-275;
The
Chinese
and Christian
seagoing
J. Buys, "New light on Medieval
ship construction,"
10 (1981):
and Underwater
International Journal of Nautical Archaeology
119-32.
Exploration
3 On the same theme
civi
view of the achievements
of Chinese
shaping Needham's
see Robert
in particular,
the
in general and the fleets of Zheng He
lization
Finlay, "China,
in China," Journal of
in Joseph Needham's
Science and Civilisation
and World
West,
History
a number
11 (2000):
cites Needham
of times, he
Menzies
While
World History
265-303.
on contrasts between China
and Europe as
of matters,
fails to do so on a number
including
in the voyages
of Zheng He and those of Europeans
reflected
(pp. 33, 40), the scientific
trade from
for the Ming
voyages
wresting
illegitimately
(p. 40), and Europeans
inChina, vol.
Science and Civilisation
(p. 376). On these topics, see Joseph Needham,
U.K.:
522,
4, pt. 3: Civil Engineering and Nautics
1971), pp. 389, 499, 514-517,
(Cambridge,
533-534
4 Menzies
work on the voyages:
the outstanding
did not consult
Zheng He xia xiyang
sources on Zheng He's voyages],
and Zheng
ed. Zheng Hesheng
yangzi liao huibian [Collected
is compiled
in these volumes
from
of the material
Much
Yijun, 2 vols. (Jinan, 1980-1983).
motives
Asians
Finlay: Gavin Menzies
and the Chinese
Discovery
of America
233
He singles out the
1405 and 1433) in one page (pp. 54-55).
(between
it was the only one in which Zheng He returned
sixth voyage because
to carry out
to China
eunuch-captains
early, leaving his subordinate
to
their kingdoms.
tribute envoys
This cir
their mission
of returning
a window
to imagine that the
cumstance
of opportunity
offers Menzies
to seek new lands in the Atlantic
and
armada left the Indian Ocean
in
sailed about 40,000 miles
Pacific. Since he claims that the mariners
their world-girdling
Odysseys, two and a half years is just barely enough
time for them to journey such a vast distance while also charting coasts,
alien peoples,
and founding colonies.
ore, meeting
mining
In addition, Menzies
feels free to speculate
about "missing years"
because of a presumed dearth of sources. He casually dismisses the prin
on Zheng He's voyages, Ma Huan's Ying-Yai
cipal source of information
that
[The overall survey of the ocean's shores], by declaring
Sheng-Lan
its author, an official translator on the staff of Zheng He in 1421, "left
coast in south
the treasure fleets at Calicut"
(a port on the Malabar
western
India), hence he did not take part in the global exploration
in any
for his assertion, which,
(p. 87). Menzies
provides no evidence
the nature of Ma's account. The author sailed on three
case, mistakes
of the Ming
and his book is a protoethnographic
survey
expeditions,
of the places visited by the fleets over several decades, not "diaries" (p.
in a specific voyage.5 He incorporated
infor
229) of his participation
on countries
mation
he did not visit, and he apparently
continued
to his book until it was published
revisions
about thirty years
making
Menzies
after the last expedition.
does not address the awkward ques
tion of why Ma, a stickler for detail and an aficionado
of novelties,
never mentions
to the Amer
excursion
of his comrades
the wondrous
icas and Australia.
1421, Menzies
Throughout
places great emphasis on imperial offi
in 1477 destroying many of the documents
the Ming
regarding
a
to
a
in
manner
order
renewal
the
In
of
prevent
expeditions
project.
of speaking,
the author sails the ships of Zheng He through that sup
cials
the Ming
shi [History of the Ming
refers to the Ming
shi as a source that
dynasty]. Menzies
from that massive
work. Nor does he
proves his contentions
(p. 438), but he cites nothing
cite any of the essays in two major collections:
[Selected
essays
Zhenghe yanjiu zilao xuanbian
on Zheng He], ed. Research Association
of Chinese
Navigational
History
1985);
(Beijing:
and Zhenghe xia xiyang lunwenji [Essays on Zheng He's voyages],
ed. Research
Association
of Chinese
like to thank Professor
Navigational
History
1985). I would
(Beijing:
Jin Jiang
in dealing with Chinese-language
of Vassar College
for her assistance
materials.
5 See Ma
The Overall
Shores [1433],
Huan,
Ying-yai Sheng-lan:
Survey of the Oceans
edited by J.V. G. Mills
and translated by Feng Ch'eng-chun
U.K.:
(Cambridge,
1970), pp.
34-44.
234
JOURNAL
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
JUNE
2OO4
on the
void. There are plentiful
surviving documents
posed evidentiary
were
no
that prove there
however,
expeditions,
"missing years." The
sources indicate that an imperial order for the sixth voyage was issued
inMarch
the flotilla did not leave China until the turn
1421, although
of the year. It reached Sumatra around July 1422, after many
stops in
to Nanjing
Southeast
Asia; Zheng He returned home
by September
to sail on to thirty-six ports in Ceylon,
1422, leaving his subordinates
India
(both Bengal and the Malabar
coast), the Persian Gulf, and East
The last of the squadrons returned to China on 8 October
1423,
in the expected
their journey of some 11,000 miles
having
completed
after departing Sumatra.6 Thus
time, about one year and three months
there are no "missing years" for the Ming fleets, no time for even a por
tion of the extraordinary
in 1421.
exploits narrated
account
at face value, however,
Even
it is far
taking Menzies's
inNovember
fetched. The author asserts that Zheng He arrived home
Africa.
in the Indian
their errands
1421 and that his captains
completed
in July of the same year, a mere
Ocean
three months
after departing
on
at Sofala
Sumatra. After
(across from Mozambique
rendezvousing
in
the East African
doubled
the
of
Good
coast),
they
Cape
Hope
to
in
and
north
them
headed
Verde
the
Islands,
August
Cape
reaching
a month
late September;
landfall off the Orinoco
later, they made
in Brazil, and by November
River
Cape Horn
they were approaching
in the South Atlantic
In other words,
113-116).
(pp. 83, 99-100,
a voyage of some
Menzies
proposes that Zheng He's captains completed
seas in seven months,
in mainly
unknown
17,000 miles
including
dozens of stops in the Indian Ocean,
while Zheng He took the same
amount of time to journey about 3,500 miles from Sumatra to Nanjing.
then, Zheng He sailed sluggishly but his captains
By this account,
claims
that the average
made
rapid progress. Menzies
spectacularly
over
seven
in the Indian
He's
their
of
vessels
voyages
speed
Zheng
has no
Ocean was 4.8 knots
(or 132 miles per day) (p. 100). Menzies
since an average speed can be calculated
basis for this estimate
only for
for which a detailed
itinerary survives. Nat
expedition,
on
the time of year and
differed
considerably,
depending
urally, speeds
In the seventh voyage, distances
covered
the passage being traversed.
to a low of 37.5
varied from a high of 106 miles per day (3.8 knots)
miles per day (1.4 knots), with an average of 69 miles per day (or 2.5
the 1431-1433
6 On
see Zheng He xia xiyang yangzi liao huibian, 2: 926-30;
Har?
dates for the voyages,
in India-China
Relations
(New Delhi:
1993), pp. 37-44.
prasad Ray, Trade and Diplomacy
in the
maritime
fundamental
essay, "The true dates of the Chinese
expeditions
Duyvendak's
is cited by Menzies
34 (1938): 341-412,
(p. 82), but he
century," T'oungPao
early fifteenth
of the sixth voyage.
ignores it in his reconstruction
Finlay: Gavin Menzies
and the Chinese
Discovery
of America
235
estimate
that his undocumented
assumes, however,
knots).7 Menzies
of 4.8 knots for the Indian Ocean
voyages holds as well for the global
cruises of the Ming fleets.8 His calculation
helps him narrowly fit the
agenda of the fleets into the alleged "missing years": having doubled the
to
time the junks actually were away from China
(from fifteen months
an
them
average
thirty), he also hurries the ships along by granting
in the
than what
achieved
52 percent higher
they generally
winds of the southern seas. On its own terms,
steady, familiar monsoon
scenario is highly
into account
the
then, Menzies's
implausible. Taking
it is
of the sixth expedition,
evidence
for the timetable
surviving
speed
impossible.
Menzies's
in transmitting
evidence
for the role of Conti
Chinese
to European
is even flimsier
cartographers
geographical
knowledge
than his argument for "missing years." A native of Venice, Conti
lived
to Europe
in Asia
for some thirty-five
years, and when he returned
IV (r. 1431
around 1441, he sought absolution
from Pope Eugenius
to Islam. As instructed by the pope, Conti
1447) for having converted
told the story of his travels to the humanist
(1380
Poggio Bracciolini
it
into
who
his
De
Varietate
Fortunae, completed
1459),
incorporated
in 1448. His account was widely
the best
read, for Conti
provided
source of information
on the East, especially
India and Southeast Asia,
since Marco Polo's Travels (c. 1298).9
that Europe had received
7 On
distances
traveled by Zheng He's junks, see Zhou Juseng, Zheng He
measuring
cov
[The routes of Zheng He's voyages]
hanglugao
(Tapei: 1959), pp. 97-101. On distances
see Ma Huan, Ying-Yai Sheng-Lan,
ered during the seventh
voyage,
pp. 26?27,
308, n. 14.
comes up
Based upon a debatable
of Chinese
nautical
Needham
watches,
interpretation
with an average speed between
6 knots (166 miles per day) and 10 knots (276 miles per day),
on the seventh voyage and implausible
estimates
far higher than any speed achieved
in their
own right (Science and Civilisation
in China,
vol. 4, pt. 3, p. 564, n. e).
8 This
assertions. Thus Menzies
leads to some unlikely
that one Ming
proposes
squad
a round-trip
in only four months,
Pacific voyage of 16,000 miles
ron, at 4.8 knots, made
time spent establishing
coast of America
colonies
including
along the western
(p. 199).
From 1565 to 1815, however,
to Acapulco
the average duration of a voyage from Manila
by
with four months
for that leg of the round-trip
Spanish
galleons was close to six months,
(William Lytle Schurtz, The Manila Galleon
journey alone being regarded as a rapid crossing
[New York: 1939], p. 263).
9 See "The Travels
... as related
of Nicol?
Conti
in his work
by Poggio Bracciolini
entitled Historia de varietate fortunae, Lib. IV," in India in the Fifteenth Century,
ed. and trans.
see the biographical
R. H. Major
note
in Pero Tafur,
(London:
1857), pp. 3-39. On Conti,
e viajes de un hidalgo espa?ol, ed. Marcos
Andan?as
Jim?nez de la Espada (reprint, Barcelona:
On reception
of Conti's
1982), pp. 412-415.
story, see Waldemar
Sensburg,
"Poggio Brac
in ihrer Bedeutung
ciolini und Nicolo
de' Conti
f?r di Geografie
des Rennaisse-Zeitalters,"
der K. K. Geographischen
inWien
49 (1906): 261. Polo's and Conti's
Mitteilungen
Gesellschaft
accounts
were published
as in a 1502 Lisbon
of Asia
sometimes
edition
together,
(Henry
Vignaud,
n. 4).
Toscanelli
and Columbus:
The Letter and Chart
ofToscanelli
[London:
1902],
p. 24,
JOURNAL
236
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
JUNE
2004
toMenzies's
is essential
Conti
since he represents the sole
argument
vehicle by which Chinese
reached the West.
geographical
knowledge
to interpreting European maps
in the light of
Much
of 1421 is devoted
as
that knowledge,
and without Conti
"the crucial link" in the chain
of evidence,
the central thesis of the book collapses
(p. 93).
To establish
of Conti, Menzies
the relevance
splices into one quo
tation a passage from Poggio and another from Pero Tafur (c. 1410-c.
at Mt. Sinai (Egypt) in 1437, when
1484), a Spaniard who met Conti
was planning
to return home
the Venetian
(p. 85).10 Poggio refers to
large Indian ships, with five sails, many masts, and hull compartments.
Since only Chinese
the latter, it is generally
assumed
ships possessed
that Conti
know
vessels, evidently without
actually described Chinese
ing their origins.11 Tafur writes of ships "like very large houses"
[como
casas muy grandes], with
ten or more
sails and large cisterns of water
inside, that delivered
cargo to Mecca.12 Neither
Poggio nor Tafur refer
to Calicut
in connection
with the large ships, to Chinese
vessels visit
a
chronicler
ing India, or to the fleet of Zheng He; neither
provides
date for Conti's
takes for granted
that
Still, Menzies
stay in Calicut.
in 1421 when
Conti was in Calicut
the Ming
armada anchored
there,
and since both Conti
and Ma Huan describe similar scenes in Calicut,
surmises that Conti must have met the Chinese
in
Menzies
chronicler
that port (p. 86).
sce
creates an incredible
Based on these presumptions,
Menzies
nario: he declares
that Conti
boarded Zheng He's junks for their voy
New Zea
Islands, Brazil, Patagonia, Australia,
ages to the Cape Verde
and Mexico.
after the fleet returned
Moreover,
land, North America,
to Southeast
to
in late 1423, Conti
Asia
and China
dashed home
in 1424 he was "debriefed" by the Infante Dom Pedro
where
Venice,
the
of Portugal
(d. 1449), older brother of Prince Henry
(1394-1460),
and where Conti handed over copies of Chinese
so-called "Navigator,"
10Menzies
itself and it does not appear in his bibliogra
does not cite Tafur's account
A History
from Richard Hall's Empires of theMonsoon:
He
takes his quotations
of the
phy.
does not conflate
Indian Ocean and Its Invaders (New York, 1996, p. 124), which,
however,
the two statements.
11
in China,
vol. 4,
Science and Civilisation
p. 66; Needham,
Mills, Ying-Yai Sheng-Lan,
und Nicolo
de' Conti,"
pp. 304-307)
pt. 3, p. 452, note b. Sensburg
("Poggio Bracciolini
some knowledge
of
he displays
that Conti
did not actually visit China,
although
speculates
customs.
Chinese
12 "The Travels
e viajes de un hidalgo espa?ol,
of Nicol?
Conti,"
p. 27; Tafur, Andan?as
trans, and ed. Malcom
Letts
108.
See also Pero Tafur, Travels and Adventures,
1435-1439,
p.
in Poggio and Tafur, see Joan-Paul
information
of Conti's
(New York: 1926). For comparison
in the Renaissance:
South India through European Eyes,
Travel and Ethnology
1250
Rubies,
1625
(Cambridge,
U.K.:
2000),
pp.
118-123.
Finlay: Gavin Menzies
and the Chinese
Discovery
of America
237
435)-13 Those
(pp. 351-354,
produced during the great voyage
asserts, formed the basis for all subsequent
charts, Menzies
European
inter alia, the
maps that showed lands across the Atlantic,
including,
the
Pizzigano map (1424), the (disputed) Vinland map (1420-1440?),
Cantino
and
the
Waldseem?ller
maps
(1507,
planisphere
(1502),
to
Prince Henry
Conti's
information
1513). Furthermore,
prompted
to
in
Puerto
settlers
Rico
where
1431,
(Menzies
sug
secretly dispatch
of a previous Chinese
colony
gests) they perhaps found evidence
(p.
charts
charts also explain Columbus's
ambi
copies of Ming
359). European
tion to voyage across the Ocean
conviction
that
he
Sea, Magellan's
could sail around South America,
and Cook's
of
alleged "discovery"
Australia.
is silent about the
di Conti"
though "The Travels of Nicol?
of
the
Venetian?one
wonders
he
global journey
why
kept that thrill
news
from
claims
the document
ing
Poggio?Menzies
repeatedly
Conti
that
"sailed
with
the
Chinese
fleet
from
India to Aus
proves
tralia and China."14 Thus with no more warrant
than a passing men
Even
tion by Poggio and Tafur of large ships in the Indian Ocean, Menzies
a scenario
concocts
tours the world on Zheng He's
in which Conti
that
information
transforms
junks, collecting
European
cartography
overseas
and inspires European
In a book bloated with
expansion.
assertions
arguments, Menzies's
extravagant
regarding Poggio's well
text stand out for their obdurate distortion
known
of evidence.
Menzies's
claims regarding the fleet's "missing years" and Conti's
global cruise clearly cannot be sustained. The author's proof for the
of the Ming
In his
presence
argosy in new lands also lacks substance.
ne
first two chapters
the
his
for
claims
(pp. 19-75),
laYs
groundwork
when
its departure
from Nanjing.
describing
Zheng He's fleet before
it
the
lacks
the foun
any documentation,
portrait
Although
provides
dation
for virtually
all the evidence Menzies
later cites for Chinese
His depiction,
then, does not represent mere scene setting
exploration.
aimed at engaging the reader?a
rhetorical tactic that perhaps does not
call for footnotes?but
read back into the narrative
itself.
assumptions
In effect, the author stocks the ships on their exodus from China with
13
to Menzies,
because Conti was a religious
in 1424, he traveled
According
renegade
some two decades
and did not reveal his identity until his interview
incognito
by Poggio
later (p. 352). Not only is there no evidence
for this, it is clear from Tafur's account
that
Conti was in Egypt as late as 1437 (Andan?as e viajes de un hidalgo espa?ol, p. 99).
14
char
Menzies,
pp. 435, 93, 114, 192, 353-354,
369, 389. In his appendix, Menzies
account
acterizes Poggio's
as follows:
in 'The Travels"
of Conti
"Describes Chinese
fleet
to Australia
Indian Ocean
and his passage
and China"
passing
through
(p. 448).
238
JOURNAL
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
JUNE
2OO4
the very items that will confirm
that the mariners
reached
their far
destinations.15
flung
survives of the garb worn by Zheng He's
Thus while no evidence
as wearing
Menzies
describes
them
robes because
sailors,
long white
and the New World
legends and folklore from Australia
speak of vis
sources are silent on the pres
its from white-robed
aliens.16 Although
ence of women
assumes
in the fleet, Menzies
that many prostitutes
were aboard because
the colonies
founded during the voy
supposedly
mates
In like fashion, he infers
for the men.17
ages required Chinese
were
that many
chickens
loaded on the junks (as
coops of Asiatic
"valuable
the presence
p. 42) because
presents for foreign dignitaries,"
in the New World
is a central part of his proof of the
natives
fleets.18 Since Central
American
used
passage of the Ming
Menzies
chicken
entrails for divination,
presumes
they were "indoc
in the practice
trinated"
colonists
of Zheng He
by the fowl-bearing
(pp. 225, 420).
is no evidence
There
for masons
and stone carvers in Zheng He's
believes
flotilla, but Menzies
they were aboard because no one else
stone markers
could have carved the numerous
left behind
supposedly
Islands and other landing spots, and
by the fleets in the Cape Verde
"observation
they must have built the "pyramids" and astronomical
of chickens
platforms"
found
just about
everywhere
else.19 The
latter, Menzies
15 It would
to deal with all the items in the fleet mentioned
be tedious
by Menzies,
red tunics, pantaloons,
includes mirrors,
roses, jade, seeds, citrus fruits, coconuts,
items omitted
from the
savants, and Buddhist
mining
engineers, Hindu
religious figures. The
as those that are
narrative
have the same status inMenzies's
discussion,
however,
following
because evidence
included; that is, the author assumes they were aboard the fleet inNanjing
the fleets ventured.
for them supposedly has been found in areas overseas where he believes
is a different
Porcelain
case, for it certainly was carried on Zheng He's ships, and Menzies
which
also
consideration
makes much ofthat
(pp. 73, 195, 203, 208, 227, 275, 451, 453); but trade in
in places such as
that its appearance
and of such long standing
the ceramic was so extensive
cannot be used as evidence
for the presence
of Zheng He's
East Africa
and the Philippines
inWorld
of Porcelain
fleets. See Robert
History,"
Finlay, "The Pilgrim Art: The Culture
Journal ofWorld History
g (1998):
158-165.
141-187,
especially
16
445.
Menzies,
pp. 163-164,
285, 322, 414-415,
167, 177, 190, 207, 276-277,
17
the
recruited from Canton
281, 285, 296. Supposedly
brothels,
Menzies,
pp. 67-69,
as "beautiful
women
are described
and
who were well-educated,
concubines"
talented,
to their
act" (p. 67). Oddly,
the author devotes more discussion
regarded sex as "a sanctified
of Zheng He.
than he does to the other six expeditions
sexual activity
presumed
18
232, 378, 395, 403.
162, 209, 223-224,
Menzies,
pp. 123, 124-126,
19On
and the like, see Menzies,
"observational
pp. 103, 105-106,
platforms"
presumed
401, 437, 440, 453-455.
191, 270, 324-325,
163, 172, 173, 175, 185-186,
in China
before departure
with Zheng He were carved
associated
actually
in Ceylon
in 1411 (see Needham,
Science and Civilisation
with one erected
Pt- 3> P- 523)
Inscribed
steles
of the fleet, as
inChina, vol. 4,
Finlay: Gavin Menzies
and the Chinese
Discovery
of America
239
astronomers,
claims, were needed by Chinese
passengers
indispensable
in the fleet since they had to carry out the (undocumented)
imperial
to detect "guiding stars" in order to "correctly locate the new
command
territories"
Teak was not used in building
(pp. 28-29).
Zheng He's
consulted
Menzies
make
clear,
fleets, as sources supposedly
yet he
by
as
in
marine
excavations
of
teak
the
appearance
regards any
marking
It is highly unlikely
of the Ming
vessels.20
that the Chinese
at
stones for bal
carried
carved
any time)
junks (or any ships
specially
as
he
Menzies
describes
how
the mari
last,
imagines, yet
elaborately
ners built a slipway to refloat grounded
at
in
Bimini
the
Bahamas,
junks
is "tongued
the evidence
for which
and grooved"
rocks
rectangular
presence
found
underwater
there?ballast,
the author
declares,
from the Ming
(pp. 63, 265-277).21
included some horses used by
Zheng He's armada almost certainly
the admiral and other high commanders.
Menzies
claims, however,
that thousands of horses were transported, many being used to stock the
at
Americas
and to explore the interior of Australia. At sea for months
a time, the mariners
nourished
the
horses
with
mashed
boiled,
allegedly
ships
rice and with water distilled
from seawater, "using paraffin wax or seal
states that there is no
blubber for fuel" (p. 67). Although
Needham
evidence
that the Chinese
knew how to desalinate
seawater, Menzies
asserts that a ship wrecked off the Oregon
coast is reported to have car
ried paraffin wax, hence he regards the rumor as implicit verification
of
his contentions
about both desalination
and hordes of junk-journey
ing steeds.22
20Menzies
cites Li Zhaoxiang's
chuan chang zhi [Record of the shipbuilding
Longquan
on the subject of Zheng He's ships. Both
yards on the Dragon River]
(1553) and Needham
discuss the woods used in constructing
the junks?cedar,
and elm?
chestnut,
fir, camphor,
and do not mention
teak. See Longquan
chuan chang zhi, 5:7; Needham,
Science and Civili
sation in China,
vol. 4, pt. 3, pp. 411, 414. On
see
teak as evidence
of Zheng He's vessels,
201, 227, 309, 459.
Menzies,
pp. 154, 172-173,
21Menzies
states that the large stones were carved
in Nanjing
to lock together as bal
last so the ships would not be damaged
in a heavy
storm (p. 273). There
is no evidence
that
ever employed
the Chinese
this labor-intensive
loose and flexible mate
Rather,
technique.
rials, such as rock salt, cowrie shells, metal
ingots, porcelain,
gravel, sand, and timber typ
ically were used as ballast, for they could be loaded and removed
relatively
easily, and they
could be sold at the end of a voyage when
the bilge was cleaned.
22
see Joseph
for desalination
in China,
Menzies,
pp. 201, 183,310. On lack of evidence
inChina, vol. 5, Chemistry
Science and Civilisation
and Chemical Technology,
Needham,
pt. 4,
and Invention: Apparatus,
Theories and Gifts
U.K.:
1980),
(Cambridge,
to inflate Chinese
adds
achievements,
however, Needham
immediately
. . . ."
was done during
the great voyages
of Cheng
Ho
[desalination]
Menzies
of wax and blub
may have taken this hint from Needham,
adding to it his notion
ber fuel. If the fleet described
included only 1,000 horses, however,
then at least
by Menzies
Spagyrical Discovery
p. 61. Always
eager
that "very possibly
JOURNAL
240
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
JUNE
2OO4
The seamen, prostitutes,
and eunuchs were kept in fresh fish at sea
. . ."
in
"trained
otters,
by
pairs to herd shoals into the nets
working
in any
creatures,
alas, remain unheralded
(p. 39). These marvelous
but since some wild ones "have been seen swimming
in the
document,
Island" (New Zealand), Menzies
infers that their for
fjords of South
bears must have jumped Zheng He's ships there (pp. 173, 185). Chinese
an animal
the Ming
flotilla because
shar-peis must have sailed with
a
in
in the
Mexican
the
discovered
painting
resembling
dog appears
nineteenth
audacious
(pp. 42, 223). One
shar-pei, Menzies
in
from
the
the
Falklands
and mated with
proposes,
junks
an indigenous
a
to
now-extinct
birth
animal
called a war
fox, giving
on
rah?DNA
author
the
will
be
the website
results,
promises,
posted
century
absconded
(P- 135)
Menzies
also goes beyond his portrait of Zheng He's armada inNan
to
from its global adventures.
He sug
jing
point to evidence
deriving
a
that
the
Chinese
few
American
South
sloths
gests
(or
giant
captured
in Patagonia.
arises from the author's
This
deduction
mylodons)
notion
that a "dog-headed man" depicted on the Piri Reis map of 1513
of course, Menzies
regards as based upon a copy of a Chinese
an animal
in fact a mylodon,
from
Conti's
collection?is
map
(he
zoo (pp.
He's
that
desired
for
the
assumes)
captains
Zheng
emperor's
He further supposes
that one of the sloths aroused
itself
118-119).
a
stone
to
in
incarceration
Australia
because
Chinese
escape
enough
looks something
like the Patagon
(he thinks)
carving near Brisbane
?which,
ian beast (p. 185).
to keep track of how many
It is impossible
assump
self-confirming
tions are at work in such citations
of alleged evidence.
Piling supposi
never considers a question
tion upon supposition, Menzies
that he does
not beg: every argument
in 1421 springs from the fallacy of petitio prin
is actually a feedback
cipii. The author's "trail of evidence"
loop that
and con
and
between
makes no distinction
premise
proof, conjecture
firmation,
Thus
bizarre guess and proven
describes
just as Menzies
fact.
junks as supplied with all the
where he contends,
he also
will
that
sailed
prove they
paraphernalia
routes
reconstructs
the
of the voyages
maps,
by treating European
of those very
based on Conti's
cache, as the by-product
supposedly
Since the
leads to some curious conclusions.
voyages. This
inevitably
five gallons of drinking water and two gallons
horse (see Menzies,
p. 183). The total comes
a lot of seal blubber.
day. That's
the
rice would be needed
for boiling
to 7,000 gallons of desalinated
daily for every
seawater every
Finlay: Gavin Menzies
and the Chinese
Discovery
of America
241
sea passage
of 1507 seems to show an open
Waldseem?ller
map
and Eurasia from the Barents Sea to the
between
Circle
the Arctic
concludes
Bering Straits, a distance of more than 4,000 miles, Menzies
that the route was surveyed by a Ming
fleet taking a shortcut home
of Greenland,
after its exploration
boldly going where no eunuch had
gone
voyage
(p. 311). The
to observe
except
before
does not discuss this epic
author, however,
it took
that the Waldseem?ller
map proves
place.
since Menzies
believes
that the Chinese
first navigated
Similarly,
is proof of that
around South America
and that the Piri Reis map
he declares
that the map does not show a landlocked
achievement,
an
extension
with
eastward
of the Americas
Atlantic,
linking up with
the peninsula
of Southeast Asia,
but, rather, "what appears to be ice
to Antartica"
the
of
America
South
connecting
tip
(p. 116). Rivaling
his mistreatment
of Poggio's "Travels," Menzies makes
this claim even
own
contra
Piri
his
of
the
Reis
chart
though
reproductions
patently
dict it (pp. 117, 122, and color illustration). Not only that, Piri Reis
states the contrary, for he noted on his map that Spanish
himself
and
Portuguese
explorers "have found out that coasts encircle this sea [that
which has thus taken the form of a lake . . . ."23Men
is, the Atlantic],
to inform his readers of this evidence.
zies does not think it necessary
this reckless manner
of dealing with
is
evidence
Unfortunately,
it
all its extraordinary
claims:
the voyages
typical of 1421, vitiating
describes never took place, Chinese
information never reached Prince
and Columbus,
and there is no evidence
of the Ming
fleets in
Henry
lands. The fundamental
of the book?
newly discovered
assumption
that Zhu Di dispatched
the Ming fleets because he had a "grand plan,"
a vision of charting the world and creating a maritime
empire spanning
a shred
the oceans (pp. 19-43)?is
simply asserted by Menzies without
own
of proof.
It represents
the author's
back
grandiosity
projected
onto the emperor, providing
commensu
the latter with an ambition
rate with the global events that Menzies
presumes
1421 uniquely has
an account
that provides
"to overturn
evidence
the long
revealed,
23
in Svat Soucek,
Piri Reis and Turkish Mapmaking
The Khalili
Quoted
after Columbus:
Portolan Atlas
(London:
1996), p. 60; see also Kitabi-I Bahriye Pin Reis, ed. Ertugrul Zek?i
Okte
and translated
(Istanbul:
1:107. In fact, the continental
by Robert
Bragner
1988),
on the Piri Reis map represents
extension
an interesting,
of South America
Gama
post-da
contention
is a land-locked
that the Indian Ocean
sea, with the south
update of Ptolemy's
ernmost end of Africa
to connect with Southeast
Asia
curving eastward
(see W. G. L. Ran
of Ptolemy's
in Renaissance
dies, "The Recovery
Geography
Italy and Its Impact in Spain
in the Period of the Discoveries,"
and Portugal
and Nautical
Science
Geography,
Cartography
in the Renaissance:
The Impact of the Great Discoveries
U.K.:
[Aldershot,
2000], n.p.).
JOURNAL
242
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
It
world"
accepted history of the Western
(p. 400).
that textbooks on that history need not be rewritten.
1421 is inexorably circular, its evidence
spurious, its
its
citations
its borrowings
unacknowledged,
slipshod,
JUNE
2OO4
is clear, however,
The reasoning of
research derisory,
and its assertions
preposterous.
itmay have some pedagogical
value in world history courses.
to
from the book
selections
and undergrad
Assigning
high-schoolers
serve as an outstanding
uates, itmight
example of how not to (re)write
some light relief to a
to provide
Instructors
world history.
seeking
to vie
sometimes
students
subject also could encourage
heavy-going
one
or
most
in nominating
the
with
another
amusing passage
peculiar
Still,
in the book. A
Ming mariners
beads the size of
into
be stitched
be the notion
that the
top contender
surely would
to the Americas
of tiny glass
"millions
transported
as a sex aid," intended
to
those used by the Chinese
the skin around the head of the penis to increase the
of
Indeed, if the eunuch-captains
pleasure of one's spouse (p. 227).24
to
He's
tried
indoctrinate
the
encountered
fleets
Zheng
they
peoples
it is little wonder
in this exotic practice,
that all the fabled Chinese
in the New World
colonies
1421 and 1492.
24
floundered
and faded
in the years between
on Malay men
tin beads
inside the skin of the penis,
Ma Huan
inserting
the tin beads as "Chinese-made
describes
glass beads" (pp. 72-73).
inexplicably
trade in glass beads, which were certainly not used by the Chi
There was an ancient Asian
as a "sex aid." See Peter Francis Jr., Asia's Maritime
Bead Trade: 300 B.C.
nese, or anyone,
to the Present
2002).
(Honolulu:
Menzies
Citing