THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA BY THE CHINESE.

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 581, 7 October 1869, Page 4

THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA BY THE CHINESE.

♦ Fourteen hundred years ago even America had beendisco vered by the Chinese and described by them, They stated that land to be about 20,000 Chinese miles distant from China. About 500 years after the birth of Christ, Buddhist priests repaired there, and brought ba.ck the news that they had met with B.uddh,ist idols and religious writings in the country already. Their descriptions, in many respects, resemble those of the Spaniards a thousand years after. They called the country " Fusany," after a tree which grew there, whose leaves resemble those of the bamboo, whose bark the natives made clothes and paper out of, and whose fruit they ate. These particulars correspond exactly and remarkably with those given by the American historian, Prescott, about the maquay-tree in Mexico. He states that the Aztecs prepared a pulp for papermaking out of the bark of this tree. Then, even its leaves were used for thatching ; its tibres for making ropes ; its roots yielded a nourishing food ; and its sap, by means of fermentation, was made into an intoxicating drink. The accounts given by the Chinese and Spaniards, although a thousand years apart, agree in stating that the natives did not possess any iron, but only copper ; that they made all their tools, for vyorking in stone and metals, out of a mixture of copper and tin ; and they, in comparison with the nations of Europe and Asia, thought but little of the worth of silver and gold. The religious customs and forms of worship presented the same characteristics to the Chinese fourteen hundred years ago as to the Spaniards four hundred years ago. There is, moreover, a remarkable resemblance between the religion of the Aztecs and the Buddhism of the Chinese, as well as between the manners and customs of the Aztecs and those of the people of China. There is also a great similarity between the features of the Indian tribes of Middle and South America and those of the Chinese, and, as, Hanlay, the Chinese interpreter of whom we spoke, states, between the accent and most of the monosyllabic words of the Chinese and Indian languages. Indeed, this writer gives a list of words which point to a close relationship ; and infers therefrom that there must have been emigration from China to the American continent at a most early period indeed, as the official accounts of Buddhist priests fourteen hundred years ago notice these things as existing already. Perhaps now old records may be recovered in China which may furnish full particulars of this question. It is at any rate remarkable and confirmative of the idea of emigration from China to America at some remote period, that at the time of the discovery of America by the Spaniards the Indian tribes on the coast uf the Pacific, opposite to China, for the most part, enjoyed a state of culture of ancient growth, while the inhabitants of the Atlantic shore were found by Europeans in a state of original barbarism. If the idea of America having been discovered before the time of Columbus be correct, it only goes to prove that there is nothing new under the sun ; and that Shelley was right in his bold but beautiful lines: — "Thou cansL not find one spot whereon no city stood." Admitting this, who can tell whether civilsaj tion did not exist in America when we were plunged in barbarism I and, stranger still, whether the endless march of ages in rolliug over our presemt cultivation may not obliterate it, and sever the two hemispheres once again from each other's cqgnisance ? Possibly, man is destined, in striving after civilisation, to be like Sisyphus, always engaged in rolling up a stone which ever falls down. — C. Wells in the Gentlemen's Magazine.