F U S A N G.
•KIN PHD BY BALLAXTYNK AND COMPANY EDINBURGH AND LONDON
THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
FUS ANG
ok
CHINESE BUDDHIST PRIESTS IN THE FIFTH CENTUR Y.
CHARLES G. LELAND.
h
anc lira
LONDON : TRUBNER & CO., LUDGATE HILL.
1875-
[All rights reserved.]
PREFACE.
IT is now more than a century since the learned French sinologist Deguignes set forth, in a very ably-written paper in the " Memoires de 1' Academic cles Inscriptions et Belles Lettres " (vol. xxviii., 1761), the fact that he had found in the works of early Chinese historians a state ment that, in the fifth century of our era, certain travel lers of their race had discovered a country which they called Fusang, and which, from the direction and dis tance as described by them, appeared to be Western America, and in all probability Mexico. When De guignes wrote, his resources, both as regards the know ledge of the region supposed to have been discovered and the character of the travellers, were extremely limited, so that the skill with which he conducted his investigation, and the shrewdness of his conjectures, render his memoir, even to the present day, a subject of commendation among scholars. Few men have ever done so much or as well with such scanty and doubtful material.
The original document on which the Chinese his-
268737
vi PREFACE.
torians based their accoimt of Fusang was the report of a Buddhist monk or missionary named Hoei-shin (Schin or Shen),1 who, in the year 499 A.D., returned from a long journey to the East. This report was regularly entered on the Year-Books or Annals of the Chinese Empire, whence it passed, not only to the pages of historians, but also to those of poets and writers of romances, by whom it was so confused with absurd inventions and marvellous tales, that even at the pre sent day discredit is thrown by a certain class of critics on the entire narrative. In 1841 Carl Friedrich Neu mann, Professor of Oriental Languages and History at the University of Munich, published the original narra tive of Hoei-shin from the Annals, adding to it com ments of his own elucidating its statements, and advanc ing somewhat beyond Deguignes. This little work I translated into English, under the supervision of Pro fessor Neumann, and with his aid. I believe that, as he revised and corrected the English version here given, it may claim to be an accurate translation from the Chinese text of the Year-Book, and that of Hoei-shin. I have placed it first in this volume because it gives in a much more perfect form than is to be found in the memoir of Deguignes the original report on which the entire investigation is based. It of course includes Professor Neumann's comments on the monk's brief narrative ; and as these embrace many remarks on the
1 Neumann gives the name as Hoei-schin ; Dr Bretschneider, as Hui- shen. When not translating Dr Neumann, I have written it Ifoei-shin.
PREFACE.
possibility of passing by sea from the Chinese to the American coast, I have thought it appropriate to place next in the series a letter from Colonel Barclay Kennon, who, as a prominent officer in the United States Coast Survey, passed several years in the JSTorth Pacific, during which time he surveyed and mapped, in company with two colleagues, the entire coast, both on the Asiatic and American sides. Colonel Kennon is of opinion that the voyage supposed to have been taken by the Buddhist monks is easily practicable, and might be effected even in an open boat — the vessel in which he himself passed both summer and winter, and in which he sailed more than 40,000 miles, having been simply a small pilot-boat. To this I have added, in further reference to certain remarks by Professor Neu mann, a comment on the affinities between American and Asiatic languages, and other subjects mentioned in his text, i.e., the Mound-Builders and the Images of Buddha. These are followed by extracts from, and remarks on, a series of articles by M. Gustave d'Eich- tlial, contributed to the Revue Arckceologique in 1862-63, in which he defends Deguignes from an attack which the well-known Orientalist Julius Heinrich von Klaproth made upon the original memoir by the former. I believe that -it will be admitted by all unprejudiced scholars, that in these ably-written and very temperate articles M. D'Eichthal has fully vindicated Deguignes, and has also contributed much very valuable material to the subject. I am far from claiming that it
PREFACE.
has been absolutely proved that Hoei-shin was in Mexico, or that he was preceded thither by " five beggar-monks from the Kingdom of Kipin." But it cannot be denied that, as further researches have been made, much which at first seemed obscure or impro bable in his narrative has been cleared up. All that Hoei-shin declares he saw is not only probable, but is confirmed, almost to the minutest details, by what is now known of Old and New Mexico.
All that seems fabulous in his story, he, like Hero dotus, relates from hearsay ; 'but it is remarkable that these wonders, which Professor Neumann was unwilling ' to cite, all appear at the present day to be simply exag gerations of facts which recent research has brought to light. Among the objects seen and described by the monk was the maguey plant, or great cactus, which he called the Fusang, after a Chinese plant slightly resem bling it, and this name (Fusang) he applied to the coun try. His description of this plant, and of its many uses, is very striking. Other things peculiar to Mexico, but not known to China, were remarked, as, for instance, the absence of iron, and the fact that copper, gold, and silver were not prized, and were not used for money. The manner in which marriage was contracted in Fusang, according to his description, is not at all Chinese — I doubt if it be Asiatic — but it exists in more than one North American tribe, and something very like it was observed by a recent traveller in New Mexico.
PREFACE.
I have in Chapter IX. called attention to a fact which seems to have escaped both Neumann and Klap- roth, though both were familiar with the literature on which it is based. It is simply this, that the voyage of Hoei-shin forms a portion of the somewhat extensive literature of travel of Buddhist monks, the authenticity of which has been vindicated by Stanislas Julien. Many of these have been translated, and one of them, " The Mission of Sung-yun," was recently published in Eng lish. Sung-yun travelled only nineteen years after Hoei-shin, and was in all probability a contemporary who had met him at the Chinese court, where such travellers enjoyed the highest consideration. Sung-yun had been sent to India, or the West, by 'the Empress Dowager Tai-Hau, of the Wei dynasty, and it is not im probable that Hoei-shin had travelled to the East, in like manner, by imperial order. It is evident that he lived at a time when men of his stamp were in request to go to the ends of the earth to spread the doctrines of Buddha. £eA\l*^l
In 1869, some one who had read or heard of Neu- ^ mann's work onTEe Buddhist discovery of America, placed in the " Notes and Queries on China and Japan," published at Hong Kong, a request that those who possessed information on the subject would send it to that journal. The results were, however, trifling, the principal communication thus elicited being an article from Dr E. Brefcschneider, in which the writer, while expressing his opinion that Hoei-shiu was a
PREFACE.
"lying Buddhist priest," and a "consummate horn- bug," brought forth nothing of consequence to prove such very positive assertions. But as the paper forms a por tion of the literature of the Fusang question, I have included it in this volume.
MEMOIR
OF
PROFESSOR CARL FRIEDRICH NEUMANN.
M E M 0 I R.
CARL FEIEDRICH NEUMANN, the author of the subjoined memoir on the presumed early discovery of America by Buddhist monks, was of Jewish family, and born Decem ber 22, 1798, near Bamberg, Bavaria. He was intended for commerce, but having studied history at the Uni versities of Heidelberg and Munich, determined to de vote his life to letters. Having become a Protestant, he was appointed professor in 1822 at the Gymnasium of Speier, whence he was dismissed in 1825 for Liberal opinions in politics. He subsequently lived for several years in Venice, Paris, and London, occupied with the study of Oriental languages. Having distinguished himself as a sinologist, he went in 1829 to China, where he remained nearly two years, occupied in col lecting Chinese books. In Canton he obtained a valu able library of 10,000 volumes, which, after his re turn, were ceded to the Bavarian Government. In 1838 he received an appointment as professor of the Chinese and Armenian languages at the University of Munich, where he also read lectures on mathematics
xiv MEMOIR.
and modern history, which were very popular with the students. Having known him well, both in public and private, and pursued studies under his special guidance. I venture to speak with confidence and respect of hi; enormous learning, as well as his sound judgment it. matters of scholarship.
Professor Neumann was the author of a number o ? works in Latin, French, and English, as well as Ger man, two oi" which received prizes from the Academic.-; of Copenhagen and Paris. His principal books are the following : —
Rerum Cretaricum Specimen. Gottingen, 1820.
Ueber die Staatsverfassung der Florentiner, von Leonardus Are- tinus. Frankfurt, 1822.
Historische Versuche. Heidelberg, 1825.
Me' moires sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de David, philosopho Armenien du cinquieme siecle de nctre 6" re, et principalement sur ses traductions de quelques 6crits a Aristote. Paris, 1829.
The History of Vartan, and of the Battle of the Armenians, containing an account of the religious wars between the Persians and Armenians. By Elisseus ; translated by C. F. Neumann. London, 1831.
The Catechism of the Shamans, or the Laws and Regulations of the Priesthood of Buddha in China. Translated from the Chinese, with notes and illustrations. London, 183].
History of the Pirates who infested the Chinese Seas from 1807 to 1810. Translated from the Chinese original, with notes and illustrations. London, 1831.
Geschichte der Armenischen Literatur. Leipzig, 1833-36.
Geschichte der Uebersiedlung von 40,000 Armeniern. Leipziir, 1834.
Russland und die Tcherkessen. Stuttgart, 1840.
MEMOIR. xv
Gescbiclite des Englisck-Chinesiscken Kriegs. Leipzig, 1846. In this comprehensive work, one division is entitled, " Nord Amerika und Frankreich in China," in which the present and future relations of Western America and Eastern Asia are de veloped with great sagacity. A few years before his death, Iskander (Alexander Herzen) wrote to me — " The Pacific will yet be the Mediterranean of the future." Those who look forward to such developments of civilisation and commerce will find this book of Professor Neumann's very interesting.
Die Yblker des Siidlichen Russland in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung. Leipzig, 1847. To this work was awarded the prize of the Royal Institute of Paris.
Die Reisen des Venetianers Marco Polo, Deutsch von August Biirk. Nebst Zusatzen und Verbesserungen von C. F. Neumann. Leipzig, 1845.
Beitrage zur Armenischen Literatur. Leipzig, 1849.
Geschichte des Englischen Reichs in Asien. Leipzig, 1857.
Professor Neumann was one of the directors of the German Oriental Association, and published in the first number of tbeir magazine a biography of Dr Morrison, the celebrated Protestant missionary to China.
I sincerely trust that the additions which I have made to this work, in elucidation or in illustration of the idea advanced, will be found to the purpose. They are the result of much research, — I may honestly say, of far more than appears in this volume, as the subject, from its obscurity, yielded only the proverbial grain of wheat to the wearisome bushel of chaff. I also hope that it is free from either reckless hypothesis or easy credulity, and that nothing will be understood to be advanced as being more than probable.
CONTENTS.
THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN, WITH COMMENTS BY PROFESSOR CARL F. NEUMANN.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
KNOWLEDGE OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES AMONG THE CHINESE, ... 3
CHINESE KNOWLEDGE OF LANDS AND NATIONS, .... 6
CHAPTER II.
IDENTITY OF THE TARTARS AND NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS J OR,
THE ROAD TO AMERICA, AND THE PEOPLE IN IT, ... 7
TUNGUSE EASTERN BARBARIANS, . ' . . . . ." . 8
KAMTSCHATKA IN THE TIME OF TANG, 15
CHAPTER III.
TAHAN OR ALIASK A, AND ITS DISCOVERY, . . , . , . 24
THE KINGDOM OF FDSANG, OR MEXICO, ...... 25
OF WRITING AND CIVIL REGULATIONS IN FUSANG, .... 26
THE KINGDOM AND THE NOBLES OF FUSANG, . . . ... 27
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, / ":; , . . . . ' 27
AMAZONIA, ' 29
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
P.AGF
REMARKS ON THE REPORT OF HOEI-SHIN, 31
THE OLDEST HISTORY OF MEXICO, .'..... 33
THE RUINS OF MITLA AND PALENQUE, 34
FUSANG, MAGUEY, AGAVE AMERICANA, 37
METALS AND MONEY, 36
LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF THE AZTECS, 3[
DOMESTIC ANIMALS, . 4f
CHAPTER V.
CHINESE AND JAPANESE IN KAMTSCHATKA AND THE HAWAIIAN
GROUP, 4f
THE FUTURE OF EASTERN ASIA, 4(
REMARKS ON THE TEXT OF PROFESSOR NEUMANN. CHAPTER VI.
FUSANG AND PERU, 49
LETTER FROM COLONEL BARCLAY KENNON ON THE NAVIGATION OF THE NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN.
CHAPTER VII.
NAVIGATION OF THE NORTH PACIFIC, (53
CHAPTER VIII.
REMARKS ON COLONEL KENNON's LETTER, '81
CHAPTER IX.
TRAVELS OF OTHER BUDDHIST PRIESTS (FROM THE FOURTH TO THE
EIGHTH CENTURY A. D.), gr
CONTENTS.
AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, WITH THEIR RELATIONS TO THE OLD WORLD.
CHAPTER X.
PAGE AFFINITIES OF AMERICAN AND ASIATIC LANGUAGES, ... . . 99
CHAPTER XL
THE MOUND-BUILDERS AND MEXICANS, 110
CHAPTER XII.
MAGES OF BUDDHA, . . . 119
THE ADVOCATES AND OPPONENTS OF THE NARRA TIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
CHAPTER XIII.
DEGUIGNES, KLAPROTH, AND D'EICHTHAL, . ' '. . . . 125
THE LATEST DISCUSSION OF FUSANG. CHAPTER XIV.
T. SIMPSON AND DR E. BRETSCHNEIDER ; OR, EUROPEANS RESIDING IN
CHINA ON FUSANG, . 161
:
THE
NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN
WITH COMMENTS
BY
PROFESSOR CARL F. NEUMANN.
CHAPTER I.
KNOWLEDGE OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES AMONG THE CHINESE.
" To retain laws and customs according to the tradi tionary manner, and to extend these laws and customs to other lands/' was the precept of the founders of the Celestial Empire, as well as of other civilised nations. " But this extension," they added, " is not to be effected by the oratorical powers of single messengers, nor through the force of armed hordes. This renova tion, as in every other sound organic growth which forces itself from within, can only take place when the Outer Barbarians, irresistibly compelled by the virtue and majesty of the Son of Heaven, blush for their barbarism, voluntarily obey the image of the Heavenly Father, and become men."
It will be readily understood that a race holding such opinions would undertake no voyage of discovery, and attempt no conquests. Not a single instance occurs during the entire four thousand years of the history of Eastern Asia, of an individual who had travelled in foreign lands for the purpose of adding to his own information or that of others. The journey of Lao-tse — the founder of the religion of the Taosse —
4- *
' ^ ' THE WXX&A TIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
to the West appears to be a tale deliberately invented for the purpose of connecting his doctrine of the Primi tive and Infinite Wisdom with that of " The Western (Mountain of the Gods," or with Buddhism. The cam- | paigns beyond those limits which Nature has assigned to the Chinese Empire, were undertaken merely through the impulse of self-preservation. Men were compelled, in Central as in Eastern Asia, in Thibet as well as on the banks of the Irawaddy, to anticipate the dangers and invasions which, at a later period, threatened the freedom of the Central Empire, and were frequently obliged to send ambassadors or spies into different Asiatic or European countries to obtain information relating to their situation and nature, as well as the condition of their inhabitants, which could guide them in their subsequent warlike or diplomatic relations with -the enemies of the Empire.
This land, so blessed by Nature, attracted not only, the barbarian desirous of plunder, but also the merchant, since certain productions, such as silk, tea, and true rhubarb, were found only there. The Chinese Govern ment as well as people, influenced by the precepts of their wise men, received strangers graciously so long as they implicitly obeyed, or in any manner evinced fear and submission, and returned the presents which were offered according to Oriental custom with others of still greater value. All the discoveries and experiences. all the knowledge and information which they thus ob tained in their peaceful or warlike relations with foreign
THE NARRA TIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
nations, were generally recorded in the last division of the "_Year-Books " of their own chronicles, forming, in an historical point of view, an inestimable treasure. In the first century of our reckoning, the pride and vanity induced *by the Chinese social system were partly broken by the gradual progress of Buddhism over all Eastern Asia. He who believed in the divine mission of the son of the King of Kapilapura, must recognise every man as his brother and equal by birth ; yes, must strive — for the old Buddhistic faith has this in common witli the Christian religion — to extend the joyful mission of salvation to all nations on earth, and, to attain this end, must suffer, like the type of the God incarnate, all earthly pain and persecution. So we find that a number of Buddhist monks and preachers have at distant times wandered to all known and unknown parts of the world, either to obtain information with regard to their distant co-religionists, or to preach the doctrine of their Holy Trinity to unbelievers. The official accounts which these missionaries rendered of their travels, and of which we possess several entire, considered as sources of information with regard to different lands and nations, belong to the most in structive and important part of Chinese literature. From these sources we have derived in a great degree that information which we possess regarding North eastern Asia and the Western Coasts of America, during centuries which have been hitherto veiled in the deepest obscurity.
THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
CHINESE KNOWLEDGE OF LANDS AND NATIONS.
Pride and vanity form the basis upon which the Chinese built their peculiar system of information re garding other lands and people. Around " the Flower of the Centre," as their sages teach, dwell rude un civilised races, which are in reality animals, although they have externally human forms. To these rough brutes they apply all manner of abusive epithets, assigning to them the names of dogs, swine, devils, and savages, according to the four points of the com pass whence they came. The occasional inquirers and writers of history among the Europeans who have thought it worth their while to cast a glance upon the as yet fallow fields of Eastern and Central Asiatic history, have blindly followed this limited system, which rests upon the narrowest geographic limits, so that races originally without connection were melted into one and the same people ; as, for instance, the numer ous tribes of the Tartar family.
1
CHAPTER II.
IDENTITY OF THE TARTARS AND NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS ; OR, THE ROAD TO AMERICA, AND THE PEOPLE IN IT.
THE Tunguse, Mongolians, and a great part of the Turkish race, formed originally, according to all ex ternal organic tokens, as well as the elements of their languages, but one people, closely allied with the Esquimaux, the Shrilling, or dwarf of the Norsemen, and the races of the New World. This is the irrefut able result to which all the more recent inquiries in anatomy and physiology, as well as compara tive philology and history, have conduced. All the aboriginal Americans have those distinctive tokens which forcibly recall their neighbours dwelling on the other side of Behring's Straits. They have the four-cornered head, high cheek-bones, heavy jaws, large angular eye-cavities, and a retreating forehead. The skulls of the oldest Peruvian graves exhibit the same tokens as the heads of the nomadic tribes of Oregon and California. The different American languages, as has been already proved by Albert Gallatin in his minute researches, have such an identity, that we can, however varied the vocabulary, at once reduce them to
8 THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
one original source.1 In fact, all researches as to the manner in which America was first populated lead to one inevitable conclusion. Since the earth has been inhabited, these rude tribes dwelt in their separate divisions of Asia and America. 'This rough mass has, however, during the course of centuries, been separated by different corporeal and mental formative influences into different nations, each with peculiar bodily dis tinctions, the natural consequence of higher mental in fluences ; and various languages have been developed ; yet all of these distinctions, whether of body or of language, of manner or custom, present internal evi dence of an original unity. This unity manifests itself in their genealogies, the oldest historical system of all nations by which the identity of the Turks, Mongolians, and Tunguse is clearly proved. Among these Tartaric hordes we find absolutely the same relation as that which existed among the German nations. The Ostrogoths and Visigoths, the West- phalians, the northern and southern nations, belonged originally, notwithstanding their different destinies and culture, to the internal being of one and the same Ger man race.
TUNGUSE EASTERN BARBARIANS.
All the numerous Tartaric hordes dwelling about the north-east of the Central Empire were termed by |
1 Vide Memoires de la Soci<5t<5 des Antiquaires de 1'Amerique du JxTord, Partie linguistique rapport fait a 1'Iustitut Ilistorique, par M. Antonio Renzi, Paris, 1842, 8vo.
THE NARRA TIVE OF HOEI-SHIX. 9
the civilised natives of the South " Tonghu," " Eastern Red Men," or savages, from which appellation we de rive our word Tuuguse,1 which has been subsequently applied to an extremely limited portion of the entire race. Among these Mongolian nations, many centuries before Zenghis Khan (Tschinggs Chakan), the Mongo lians proper were distinguished by the differently -written name of Wog or Mog, and divided into seven hordes, dwelling in different places, extending from the Corean Peninsula to the distant north, over the river Amo to the eastern sea ; that is to say, to the Gulf of Anadir or Behring's Straits. The nomadic tribes dwelling more directly to the north they termed Peti, or Northern Savages, and many tribes were reckoned by them as belonging either to the Tunguse or Peti. During the course of many centuries the Chinese acquired a sur prisingly accurate knowledge of the north-east coast of Asia, extending, as their records in astronomy and natural history prove, to the sixty-fifth degree of latitude, and even to the Arctic Ocean.2 Among other / accounts, they tell us of a land very far from the Cen tral Kingdom, whose inhabitants, termed Kolihan or Chorran, sent during the latter part of the seventh century ambassadors to the Court at Singan. This land lay on the North Sea ; and still further to the north, on the other side of that sea, the days were, so
1 In the " Shajrat ul Atrak," or Genealogical Tree of the Turks and Tartars, translated by Colonel Miles, London, 1838, Tuny or Tungiis is rendered " son of a Tartar."
2 Gaubil : Observations Mathematiques, Paris, 1732, ii. 110.
io THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
long, and the nights in proportion so short, that the sun set and rose again " before one could roast a leg of mutton."
The Chinese were well acquainted with the customs of these tribes, and describe them to us as resembling the Tsohuktschi or Koljuschens2 of the present day, and other tribes of North-eastern Asia and North western America. They had neither oxen, sheep, nor other domestic animals, but there were tribes among them which employed deer, which were there very nume rous. These deer of which they speak were undoubt edly reindeer. They knew nothing of agriculture, but lived by hunting and fishing, as well as on the root of a certain plant which grew there in abundance. Their dwellings were constructed of twigs and wood, their clothes were made of furs and feathers. They laid their dead in coffins, which they placed in trees in the mountains.3 They were ignorant of any subdivisions of the year. The Chinese were also as well acquainted with those dwelling more directly to the east, as with these inhabitants of the north.
The limits of the Chinese Empire extended, under the
1 Mantuanlin, bk. 348, p. 6.
2 Koljwtchi, or Koljiiki, signifies the peg or pin which those savages •wear in the under lip, and from which the name is derived. They were subsequently termed by the Eussians, who possess the land, Galloches, from the French word, merely in jest. In the course of time this name supplanted the earlier term Koljuken, so that all are now known as Kaloschen. '
3 This is similar to the custom of many North American Indians of the West.— C. G. L.
THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN. n
dynasty of Tsclien, in the time of David and Solomon, to the Eastern Ocean. They knew and frequented the numerous groups of islands in the Pacific Ocean, for the I sake of trade. The natives inhabiting these islands sent, on their part, messengers to the coast with presents, which are registered in the Chinese annals. It also frequently happened that China sent a portion of its discontented or superfluous population to these thinly- inhabited islands, as well as to Japan, Lieu-kuei, and Formosa, of which we have accurate historical proofs. The tribe of the Ainos, or Jebis, extending from Japan to Kamtschatka, over the Kurilean and Aleutian, or Fox Islands, to the distant north, where it touched upon the nearly-allied Esquimaux, must naturally have astonished the occasional colonists and merchants who found their way thither, by a singular distinctive bodily phenomenon, namely, an exceeding growth of hair on their bodies. Such was the case, and they were termed Mau-scJdn^ (or, according to the Japanese mode of pronouncing Chinese writing, Mosiii) — i.e.. Hairy People, and also, from the great number of sej^rabs found in their region, Hi-ai (in Japanese, Jeso), or Crab-Barbarians.1 And as these barbarians, like the inhabitants of the southern islands, were in thejiabit of tattooing figures upon their skin, they were also termed by the Chinese Wen-sckin, or Painted People. In the course of time other names were also added, but any one acquainted with the nature
1 Description of the Kurilean and Aleutian Islands (translated from the Russian), Ulm, 1792, p. 16.
12 THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
of that part of the world and its inhabitants, readily recognises, despite the varied appellations, the same race of men in the Ainos. We are indebted to the numerous embassies which in earlier times passed be tween China and ^ Japan for the greater part of the information contained in their Year-Books, relating to the north and south-easterly islands and nations. These embassies brought back with them many traditionary accounts, which were strongly tinged with fable, and yet not entirely devoid of truth. For instance, when they speak of the land of Tschutschu, or dwarfs, very far to the south of Japan, whose inhabitants, black and ugly and naked, kill and devour all strangers, we readily recognise the natives of Papua or New Guinea. | The Ainos were first described, under the name of ; Hairy People, in " The Book of Mountains and Seas," a Chinese work, written in the second or third cen tury, and richly adorned with wonderful legends. They dwelt, according to this book, in the Eastern Sea, and were completely overgrown with hair.1 Some of these people came, A.D. 659, in company with a Japanese embassy, to China ; they are termed in the Year-Book of Tang, " Crab-Barbarians,"2 after which this note follows : — " They had long beards, and dwelt in the
1 Schan-hai-king, quoted in the " Histoire des Trois Royaumes, traduite par Titsingh." Klaproth Las, according to his custom, passed off the translation as his own. Paris, 1832, p. 218.
2 Tang-schu, or, '• Year-Books of Tang," bk. 220, p. 18, v. Mantuanlin, bk. 326, p. 23, v., where the report as usual is given. Tit sin gh : Annales des Empereurs du Japon, Paris, 1834, p. 52. This is a remarkable coin cidence in the Chinese and Japanese Year-Books.
THE NARRATIVE OF HO El- SHIN. 13
north-east of Japan ; they laid bows, arrows, and deer skins as presents before the throne. These were the inhabitants of Jeso, which island had, not long before, been subdued and rendered tributary by the Japanese." The report of the Japanese embassy, in their own domestic returns, is, however, much more copious and satisfactory. The queries of the Heaven's Son of Tang, and the replies of the Japanese ambassador, are there narrated as follows : —
The Ruler of Tang. — " Does the heavenly Autocrat find him self in constant tranquillity ] "
The Ambassador. — " Heaven and earth unite their gifts, and constant tranquillity ensues."
The Euler of Tang. — " Are the Government officers well appointed ? "
The Ambassador. — " They have the grace of the Heavenly Ruler, and are well."
The Ruler of Tang. — " Is there internal peace 1"
The Ambassador. — " The Government harmonises with heaven and earth — the people have no care."
The Ruler of Tang. — " Where lies the land— this Jeso ?"
The Ambassador. — " To the north-east."
The Ruler of Tang. — " How many divisions has it ?"
The Ambassador. — " Three; the most distant we call Tsgaru, the next Ara, and the nearest Niki. To the last belong these men here before us. They appear yearly with their tribute at the court of our king."
The Ruler of Tang. — " Does this land produce corn ?"
The Ambassador. — "No; its inhabitants live on flesh/'
The Ruler of Tang.—l( Have they houses 1"
The Ambassador. — "No; they live in the mountains, under trunks of trees."
14 THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
This extract is from the Nipponki, or Japanese Annals, from 661 until 696, which were collected in the year 720. They embrace thirty volumes octavo. The portions translated by Hoffman are to be found in vol. xxvi. p. 9; of Siebold's " Japanese Archives," viii. 130.
Since this time, in the seventh century, many wars Lave been undertaken against these northern border bar barians by their more civilised neighbours, and generally with success. But the inhabitants of Jeso always rose again after a short time, drove forth the Japanese inva ders from the land, and gave themselves up again to their wild, original freedom, like their ancestors on the neighbouring island. Even at the present day the Japanese govern only a very small portion of Jeso, i.e., the gold district of this remarkably rich island. Jeso readily leads to an acquaintance with Kamtschatka, which country was also described about the same period, in the following manner : l —
1 Vide Steller's Description of Kamtschatka, Leipzig, 1734, p. 3. All that occurs here in quotation marks has been literally translated from the Year-Books of Tang (Tang-schu, bk. 220, p. 19, v.) The part not thus marked is drawn principally from Steller, and is added for explana tion. The article of Mantuanlin (bk. 347, p. 5), may be compared with the Year-Books of Tang. The article is indeed evidently borrowed from the Tang-schu, but is much better arranged, and contains many original incidents, on which account I have freely availed myself of it. The com piler of the " Encyclopaedia of Kang-hi " (Juen-kien-hui-han) satisfied him self (bk. 241, p. 19), as he frequently did, with merely transcribing from Mautuaulin.
THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN. 15
KAMTSCHATKA IN THE TIME OF TANG.
Lieu-kuei (Loo-choo), or Hing-goci, as the Kamts- chadales of the present day term their fellow-country men dwelling on the Penschinisch Bay, is situated, according to the Chinese Year- Books, fifteen thousand Chinese miles distant from the capital, which, according to the measurement of the celebrated astronomer Ihan, in the time of Tang, gives about three hundred and thirty-eight to one of our grades — the Chinese grades being rather smaller than our geographical. Now, Sigan, the capital of China during the dynasty of Tang, lies in the district Schensi, 34° 15' 34" north latitude, and 106° 34' east longitude from Paris. Peter and Paul's Haven, on the contrary, according to Preuss, lies 53° 0' 59" north latitude, and 153° 19' 56" east longitude from Paris. These are differences which the accounts of the Chinese Year-Books establish in an astonishing manner, and leave no doubt whatever as to the identity of Kamtschatka with Lieu-kuei ; for it is certainly satis factory if estimates of such great distances, drawn in all probability from the accounts of half-savage sailors or quite savage natives, should agree within two or three grades with accurate astronomic results.
" This land lies exactly north-east from the Black River, or Black Dragon River, and the Moko, and the voyage thither requires fifteen days, which is the time in which the Moko generally effect it."
16 THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
The Moko here alluded to are, beyond doubt, the Mongolians, who governed in earlier ages, and even in the time of Tang as far south as Corea, and in the north as far as the other side of the Amur. The west ern limits of this people are unknown. In the east they dwelt, as our chronicle expressly remarks, as far as the ocean, or the Pacific, from whence they could very easily pass to the islands and to the American Continent. That this was in reality effected, is evident from their external appearance, as well as the affinity between the Mongolian language and that of the Ame rican Indians. The distance from Ocho-tock to the opposite peninsula is about 150 German miles, and, in fact, the natives generally require from ten to fifteen days to make the voyage.
" Lieu-kuei lies to the north of the North Sea,1 by which it is on three sides surrounded. To the north this peninsula touches upon the land of Jetschay, or Tschuktschi, but the exact limits are not easy to deter mine ; it requires an entire month to make the journey from Kamtschatka to Jetschay. Beyond this the land is unexplored, and no mission has as yet come from thence to the Central Kingdom. Here are neither for-
1 In Tang-sclm an error of transcription occurs. Instead of Pe-hai, North Sea, we have Schao-hai, "little sea." The correct reading is to be found in the two encyclopaedias already quoted. Jetschaykno, a kingdom, here " an excellent country ; " the Jetschay is only to be found in the encyclopaedias. The arrogant Chinese love to write the names of foreigners with names which indicate scorn aid contempt. Lieu-kuei, for example, signifies " the devil who runs through," and Jetschay, " the devil's com panion."
THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIX.
tified places nor towns ; the people dwell in scattered groups on the sea-islands and along the shore, or on the banks of rivers, where they live by catching and salting fish.
Steller also assures us that the dwellings of the Itol- men, or native Kamtschadales, are always situated on rivers, bays, or the mouths of the lesser streams, and especially in places which are surrounded by woods. Fish in incredible quantities, and in great variety, are found there, serving during the long winters as pro vender for both men and cattle. These they prepare in many ways, but principally by salting. Those living still more to the north subsist almost entirely on the same food, from which they receive the name Eskimantik or Eskimo, i.e., " raw-fish-eating."
" They dwell in caves, generally dug tolerably deep in the earth, around "which they lay thick, unhewn planks."
This is applicable only to their winter dwellings ; their summer habitations are built high in the air, on posts like our dovecots. The Itolmen dig out the earth to the depth of three or four feet in the form of a brick, and to such an extent as the number of their family may require. The excavated earth they pile to the height of two or three feet around the pit thus formed, and then roof it with pieces of bark or willow sticks, five or six feet long, which they drive deep within the pit into the earth, so that the tops are all equally high. Between these sticks and the earth they
1 8 THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
generally lay dry straw, so that none of the earth may fall through, nor any of the articles in the dwelling become rusty or mouldy by direct contact with it ; then they leave a shelf of earth around, about a foot broad, and lay great beams thereon in squares, which they support on the outside with planks and sticks stuck into the ground, so that they may not give way exter nally. Then they place over them four posts cut in the form of forks, as high as they wish to have the lodg ing in the middle.
Over this they lay again crosswise four beams, and fasten them with thongs to the posts, upon which they lay on every side the rafters. Between these rafters they put thin sticks, and across these small pieces of wood, quite close together ; this entire wooden roof they cover to the depth of six inches with straw, shake over it the remnant of the excavated earth, and tread it down firm. In the middle of the house they make the hearth between four thin posts ; of these posts, two form the entrance, which is at the same time the chimney. Opposite the fireplace they dig out an air- passage from eight to twelve feet long, according to the size of the house, which passes beyond the limits of the dwelling itself. This is kept closed, except when they are making a fire. To facilitate the admission of air they build the roof of the air-passage in such a manner that the wind continually strikes against it, and is drawn in. If any one would enter, he must naturally descend the door- chimney, which is done either by
THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIX. 19
means of a ladder, or the notched trunk of a tree. The smoky atmosphere is very oppressive to a European, though the natives support it without inconvenience. The little children generally creep through the draft, which also serves as a repository for cooking utensils. In the interior, cubes of wood are placed, to indicate the divisions of the separate sleeping-places.
" The climate, owing to fogs and heavy snows, is very severe. The natives are all clothed in furs, which they obtain by hunting. They also prepare a sort of cloth from dog's-hair and different species of grass. In winter they wear the skins of swine and reindeer ; in summer, those of fish. They have great numbers of dogs."
We know that the climate of Kamtschatka presents remarkable differences. Districts situated at no great distance from each other have at the same season a different temperature. The southern part of the penin sula is damper, darker, and more exposed to terrible storm-winds, on account of its vicinity to the sea; but the farther north we ascend on the Pensinischen Bay, so much the milder are the winds in winter, and so much the less rain falls in summer. In no land are the fogs so frequent and so thick as in Kamtschatka, nor is any country known where deeper snows fall than between 51° and 54° of the peninsula. The natives, therefore, naturally require the heavy sea-dog (seal) and reindeer fur-clothing spoken of in the Chinese chronicle. The women prepare from dried nettles and other grasses a sort of linen which serves for all domestic purposes.
20 THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
Reindeer, black bears, wolves, foxes, and other animals are found here in abundance, and are caught by a variety of ingenious methods, which the Chinese have also de scribed. Dogs, which they use instead of horses to draw their sledges, are their only tame animals. It is an error of the Chinese writer when he speaks of swine : they would indeed succeed in this country, but in the time of Steller they were as yet unknown. Even at the present day several of the north-easterly Man- tchou tribes clothe themselves in fish-skins, for which reason they are termed by the Chinese Jupi, or Fish- skins. These, like the Chadschen, belong to the Aleutes.
" The people have no regular constitution; they know nothing of officers and laws. If there is a robber in the land, all of the inhabitants assemble together to judge him. They know nothing of the divisions and courses of the four seasons. Their bows are about four feet long, and their arrows are like those of the Middle Kingdom. They prepare from bones and stones a sort of musical instrument ; they love singing and dancing. They place their dead in the hollow trunks of trees, and mourn for them three years, without wearing any mourn ing-clothes. In the year C40, during the reign of the second Heaven's Son of Tang, came the first and last tribute-bringing embassy from the land of Lieu-kuei to the Middle Kingdom."
Before the conquest of their land by the Russians, the Kamtschadales lived in a sort of community, such
THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN. 21
as is generally found among all primitive tribes, as, for example, the early Germans. Every one revenged his own wrongs with the readiest weapons — such as bows, arrows, and bone-spears. In war they chose a leader wiiose authority ceased with it. In case of theft, where the offender was unknown, the elders called the people together, and advised them to give him up. When this proved unsuccessful, death and destruction were gene rally invoked upon his head by means of their Shamanic sorcery. They divide the entire solar year into summer and winter, but are ignorant of any division of time into days and weeks, and few are able to count above forty. They pass their time principally in dancing, singing, and relating tales and legends. Their songs and melodies, several of which are given in Steller, are remarkably soft and agreeable. " When I compare," says this excellent writer, " the songs of the great Orlando Lasso, with which the King of France was so much delighted after the Parisian Bloody Marriage, with these airs of the Itolmen, I am compelled, so far as agreeableness is concerned, to give the latter the preference." The Chinese account of the three years of mourning is groundless ; at least, when the Russians first discovered Kamtschatka, nothing of the kind existed. The sick were thrown, when beyond all hope of recovery, to the dogs, even while yet alive, and any thing like mourning or lamenting from their surviving relatives was seldom even thought of. It is, however, possible, if not probable, that since the seventh century,
22 THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
the manners of the Kamtschadales have much changed, or deteriorated.
The situation of the Wen-schin, or Painted People, if we are to credit the account regarding their distance from Japan, must be sought for to the east of Kam- tschatka, and within the Aleutian group of islands. " The land of Wen-schin," says the Year-Book of the Southern Dynasty, " is situated about 7000 Chinese miles (or twenty of our geographical degrees) to the north-east of Japan," l a direction and distance which places us in the midst of the Aleutian or Fox group of islands. It is not readily intelligible how Deguigne? could seek and find these Painted People on the Island of Jeso.2
" Their bodies are usually covered with a variety of figures of animals and the like. On the forehead they have three lines : the long and straight indicate the nobles, the small and crooked the common people." :
The Aleutian or Fox Islanders, before their conversion to Christianity, not only cut, as is well known, a variety
1 Nausse, i.e., History of the Southern Dynasties, bk. 79, p. 5. The same article is to be found in Leang-schu, i.e., in the Year-Book of Leang, bk. 54, p. 19, and by Mantuanlin, bk. 327, p. 2.
2 Memoires de 1' Academic des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, xxxviii. 506. This is not the only error which this writer, so excellent in other respects, has made in this treatise.
3 While engaged on this re-edition of Professor Neumann's work (Lon don, March 1874), I have frequently seen two very curious Chinese figures, carved from wood, representing Aleutian Islanders. The faces are smooth, but the garment, or external figure, ingeniously adapted from some wood covered with a long fibre, gives them a very wild, hairy appearance. — C. G. L.
THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN. 23
of figures upon the body, but also bored the cartilage of the nose, and through it stuck a pin, upon which they placed, on festive occasions, glass beads. The women, for a similar purpose, bored the ear. More over, they made cuts in the under lip, in which they wore needles of stone or bone, about two inches long.
CHAPTER III.
AND ITS DISCOVERY.
DURING the dynasty of Leang, in the first half of the sixth century, the Chinese often heard of a land situated 5000 of their miles to the eastward of the Painted People, who dwelt in the Aleutian Islands, and named it Tahau, or Great China. The direction and distance indicate the great peninsula Aliaska. They probably named it Great China from their having heard of the continent which extends beyond. It was in a precisely similar manner, according to the legend, that the Irish, who in earlier ages, long before the time of Columbus, were cast away on the American shores, named the country Great Ireland.1 They reported that the newly-discovered nation altogether resembled the Painted People, but spoke an entirely different lan guage. The Tahan bore no weapons, and knew nothing of war and strife.2
Beyond Aliaska the Chinese discovered, at the end of the fifth century, a land which Deguignes, in fact,
1 Miinchener Gelehrte Anzeigen, viii. 636. This must Lave been the land extending from the two Carolinas to the southern point of Florida.
2 Leang-scliu and Mantuanliu, a. a. o.
THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIX. 25
afterwards sought for on the north-west part of the American Continent. The conjecture of that keen witted scholar was subsequently fully verified, and we are now able to determine those parts of America described by the Chinese. The zealous inquiries relating to a state of civilisation long passed away, and to such of its remains as yet exist in the New World, have led in our days to results of which the inquirer of the eighteenth century could have had. no intimation. We will now give a literal translation o£ the Chinese report, and afterwards its explanation.
" During the reign of the dynasty Tsi, in the first year of the year-naming, ' Everlasting Origin ' (A.D. 499), came a Buddhist priest from this kingdom, who bore the cloister-name of Hoei-schiu, i.e., Universal Compassion,1 to the present district of Hukuang, and those surrounding it, who narrated that Fusang is about twenty thousand Chinese miles in an easterly direction from Tahan, and east of the Middle Kingdom. Many Fusang trees grow there, whose leaves resemble the Dryanda cordifolia ; 2 the sprouts, on the contrary,
1 According to King-tschu it signifies "an old name." Kiug-tschu is the sixth of the nine provinces which are described in the tax-roll of Ju, which contains the sixth of the included divisions of the Annual Book. It extended from the north side of the hill King. Compare Hongiugta, the celebrated expounder of King in the times of Tang, with the already- mentioned extracts from the Annual or Year-Book.
2 In the Leang-schu we find an error in the writing (a very common
26 THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
resemble those of the "bamboo-tree,1 and are eaten by the inhabitants of the land. The fruit is like a pear in form, but is red. From the bark they prepare a sort of linen which they use for clothing, and also a sort of ornamented stuff." (With regard to this, the Year- Books of Leang have a variation: instead of the character KIN (11, 492 B.), meaning " embroidered stuff," or embroidered and ornamented stuff in general, we have MIEN, which signifies "fine silk.") " The houses are built of wooden beams ; fortified and walled places are there unknown."
OF W1UTING AND CIVIL REGULATIONS IN FUSANG.
" They have written characters in this land, and pre pare paper from the bark of the Fusang. The people have no weapons, and make no wars ; but in the arrange ments for the kingdom they have a northern and a southern prison. Trifling offenders were lodged in the southern prison, but those confined for greater offences in the northern ; so that those who were about to re ceive grace could be placed in the southern prison, and those who were not, in the northern. Those men and women who were imprisoned for life were allowed to
occurrence in Chinese transcriptions) : instead of the character TONG (4, 233 Bas.), we have Tang (11, 444 B.), which signifies copper, and according to which we must read, " Their leaves resemble copper," which is evi dently an error.
1 This is the case also in China with the bamboo sprouts, on which account they are called sun (7, 449 B.) ; i.e., the buds of the first ten days, since they only keep for that time.
THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN. 2/
marry. The boys resulting from these marriages were, at the age of eight years, sold as slaves ; the girls not until their ninth year.~^If a man of any note was found guilty of crimes, an assembly was held ; it must be in an excavated place." (Grube, Ger. "a pit;" possibly within an embankment or circle of earth. — C. Gr. L.) " There they strewed ashes over him, and bade him fare well. If the offender was one of a lower class, he alone was punished ; but when of rank, the degradation was extended to his children and grandchildren. With those* of the highest rank it attained to the seventh generation."
THE KINGDOM AND THE NOBLES OF FUSANG.
" The name of the king is pronounced Ichi. The nobles of the first-class are termed Tuilu ; of the second, Little Tuilu ; and of the third, Na-to-scha, When the prince goes forth, he is accompanied by horns and trumpets. The colour of his clothes changes with the different years. In the two first of the ten-year cyclus they are blue ; in the two next, red ; in the two follow ing, yellow ; in the two next, red ; and in the last two, black."
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.
" The horns of the oxen are so large that they hold ten bushels. They use them to contain all manner of
28 THE NARRATIVE 0? HOE1-SHIN.
things. Horses, oxen, and stags are harnessed to their waggons. Stags are used here as cattle are used in the Middle Kingdom, and from the milk of the hind they make butter. The red pears of the Fusang-tree keep good throughout the year. Moreover, they have apples and reeds. CjFroni the latter they prepare mats.j(L/N"o iron is found in this land ; but copper, gold, and silver are not prized, and do not serve as a medium of ex change in the market.
" Marriage is determined upon in the following man ner : — The suitor builds himself a hut before the door of the house where the one longed for dwells, and waters and cleans the ground every morning and even ing. When a year has passed by, if the maiden is not inclined to marry him, he departs ; should she be willing, it is completed. When the parents die, they fast seven days. For the death of the paternal or maternal grand father they lament five days ; at the death of elder or younger sisters or brothers, uncles or aunts, three days. They then sit from morning to evening before an image of the ghost, absorbed in prayer, but wear no mourning- clothes. When the king dies, the son who succeeds him does not busy himself for three years with State affairs.
" In earlier times these people lived not according to the laws of Buddha. But it happened that in the second year-naming < Great Light/ of Song (A.D. 458), five beggar-monks from the kingdom of Kipin went to
THE NARRA TIVE OF HOEI-SHIN. 2g
this land, extended over it the religion of Buddha, and with it his holy writings and images. They in structed the people in the principles of monastic life, and so changed their manners."
AMAZONIA.
The same Buddhist monk who gives this account of the land Fusang, tells us of a country of women. " This land," he writes, " lies about a thousand Chinese miles in an easterly direction from Fusang, and is in habited by white people with very hairy bodies." l The entire story is, however, intermixed with so much fabu lous matter, that it is not worth translating. It is, however, worthy of remark, that since the earliest times every civilised race which has left us written records of its existence spoke of a land of women, which was always placed farther and farther to the north-east, until we find it ultimately placed in ^America.2 It is hardly necessary to say that such a land of women could never have existed. It is, however, possible that among various tribes here and there the women may have had separate dwelling-places ; perhaps apart upon an island, and held intercourse with the men only from time to time. The Arabs, particularly Edrisi, speak
1 The reports are given in the Kansse, bk. 79, p. 5 ; Leang-schu, bk. 54, p. 49 ; and from these much more correctly in the Encyclopaedia of Mantuanliu, bk. 327, a. A.
2 The Japanese have in their facelift an account of such a country. — C. G. L.
30 THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
of such an arrangement, but thought that this land of women lay in an altogether different direction.1 The knowledge of the Arabs and Persians of the east and north-eastern parts of the world extended only to Japan and the eastern shores of China. " To the eastward of Japan," asserts Abulfeda distinctly, " the earth is uninhabited."
1 Edrisi, ii. 433, edition Jaubert.
CHAPTER IV.
REMARKS ON THE REPORT OF HOEI-SHIN.
THE land west of the Indus, known to us at the pre sent day under the names of Avghanistan and Beloo- chistan, was converted, shortly after the death of the Indian reformer Buddha, to his doctrine, which spread the system of castes, and was founded upon the prin ciple of universal love.
It bears in the reports of the Chinese Buddhists the name Kipin, which appears in the different forms of Kaphen, Kaphes, and Kaphante, in the description of rivers and cities in Gedrosia and Arachosia by several of the older writers.1 Here the third leader of the religion of the King's Son of Kapilapura had chosen his seat,2 and here his disciples flourished in great power, as their nume rous monuments and ruins indicate, until the seventh and eighth centuries, when the fanatic Moslem promulgated the doctrines of their own prophet with fire and sword.
1 Mannert : Geographie der Griechen und Romer, v., Abtheilung ii. 19, 20, 53, und 55.
2 Vide History of Buddhism, which bears the title Tschi-jue-la, i.e., the Indian Guide, iii. 5, v.
32 THE NARRATIVE OF H OKI-SPUN.
To its holy city came many of the monks of Middle Asia and China, and from Kophene again the religion ex tended itself to many parts of the world, even to North America and Mexico.
How these American lands were named by their in habitants we know not, as seems indeed to be generally the case with most new discoveries of this nature. We know only that they received the name Fusang, which was that of a tree common to these countries and Eastern Asia, or, it would more probably appear, that of an Asiatic tree resembling it in one or more particulars : for it seems to be a natural and usual circumstance to name a newly-discovered land after some striking peculiarity of the kind. The Norsemen, who landed in America five hundred years after these Buddhist priests, named it in a similar manner Winaland — Wine or Vine land— from the number of wild grapes which grew there. On account of the great distance of the land Fusang, no missionaries went there afterwards. And yet the story of this land, so full of marvels, has not yet disappeared from the memories of Chinese and Buddhist inquirers into the wonders of the olden time. ^"Many of them have frequently mentioned it in their \ works, and have even drawn maps of it,1 and taken the pains, in their thoughtless, unreflecting manner, to ' collect all the accounts which we have here given. Also, at a later period, their mythical geographers and poets often availed themselves of this piece of knowledge, and,
1 Fa-Uai-rirjan-Utu, i.e., More Certain Tables of Religion, i. 22.
THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
33
as was the case in the West1 with the land of Prester John, spun it out into all manner of strange tales. But these beautiful and romantic fancies about the land and tree Fusang can have no more weight with the impartial seeker into the truth of historical tradition than the legends of Alexander and of Charlemagne with the student of Arrian and Eginhard.2
The distance of the land from Tahan or Aliaska, which extends, according to the estimate before given, from the fifty-seventh to the fifty-eighth degree, leads us necessarily to the north-west coast of Mexico, and the vicinity of San Bias. Not less decisively do the Buddhist- Chinese reports indicate this part of the world. But before we can avail ourselves of these later accounts of the Aztecs, a difficulty must be removed, which would otherwise annihilate the complete mass of proofs.
THE OLDEST HISTORY OF MEXICO.
The information given by our Buddhist travellers goes back into times long anterior to the most remote periods alluded to in the obscure legends of the
1 Vide Eelation des Mongols ou Tartares, by the priest Jean du Plan de Carpin, Legat du Saint Siege Apostolique, &c., during tlie years 1245-47, given in the notice published by the Socidte de Geographic, under the above-mentioned title ; the travels of Sir John Mandeville, and Jacques de Vitry ; the works of Matthew of Paris, Joinville, Marco Polo ; and more particularly the old legend of Prestre Jehau, reprinted in " Le Monde Enchautee," parM. Ferdinand Denis, Paris, 1843, p. 184.— C. G. L.
2 Fi'cZe • Turpin's Chronicle, Warton ; "The Book of Legends," by O'Sullivan, Paris, 1842; also "The Romance of King Alisauder," Weber's "Metrical Romances." — C. G. L.
34 THE NARRATIVE OF HO El- SHIN.
Aztecs, resting upon uncertain interpretations of hiero glyphics. One fact is, however, deeply rooted in this trembling soil of Old America : the races of barbarians which successively followed each other from the north to the south always murdered, hunted down, and sub dued the previous inhabitants, and formed in course of time a new social and political life upon the ruins of the old system, to be again destroyed and renewed in a few centuries, by a new invasion of barbarians. The later native conquerors in the New World can, of course, no more be considered in the light of ori ginal inhabitants than the present races of men in the Old World.
THE RUINS OF MITLA AND PALENQUE.1
The ruins named after the adjacent places, Mitla and Palenque, situated in the province Zzendales, near the limits of the municipality of Cuidad Real and Yucatan, have been supposed by enthusiastic scholars to possess an antiquity anterior, by thousands of years, to the coming of our Lord. Prejudiced and ignorant vision aries have imagined this to be the home of all spiritual cultivation, and even to have discovered here traces of Buddhism. The Toltcks — a word signifying architects
1 Antiquites Mexicaines, ii. 73, and Transactions of the American An tiquarian Society, ii. On the subject of the early Mexicans, the reader may consult Prescott's " History of the Conquest of Mexico,"— a work as much distinguished by substantial erudition and critical tact, as by its simple, truly historical statements. (Ebenso ausgezeichnet durch griiudliche Gelehrsamkeit und kritischen Tact, wie durch einfache iicht geschichtliche Darstellung.) — CARL F. NEUMANN.
THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
55
— appeared about the middle of the seventh, century, and one of their literary productions, known as " The Divine Book," existed, according to an unauthenticated legend, until the time of the Spaniards. The Aztecs, on the contrary, came to Anahuac, or " The Land near the Water," during the reign of Frederick the Second.1 The savage invaders evinced at first the greatest hostility to the religion and social institutions of the conquered race, bu^jeelin£_ ultimately them selves the want of a regular system, they erected a new edifice upon the old ruins. This may prove advan tageous in an intellectual or intelligent (subjectiv)^ as well as a material point of view, since we gan^thus avail ourselves of JL knowledge of the laws^ manners, and customs of the Aztecs, in order to obtain a clearer conception of the condition of the earlier races who in habited this land.2 The most learned historian of New Spain has already recognised in every particular, and in connection with the results of the most recent inquiries, the original affinity of the numerous Mexican languages. The pyrarnidic-symbolic form of many of the Mexican monuments appears, indeed, to have a resemblance with the religious edifices of the Buddhists for places of interment ; but neither their architecture nor orna ments, according to Castaneda's drawings of Mexican antiquities, indicate any East Indian symbol, unless we
1 The chronological accounts of the different authors contradict each other ; those of the learned Clavigero always appear to be the • most correct. — PRESCOTT, i. ii.
2 Clavigero, Storia Antica del Messico, i. 153.
36 THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
are willing to admit tlieir eight rings or stories as such.1 According to a Buddhistic legend, the remains of Schakia were placed in eight metallic jars, and over these as many temples were erected.2 But if Buddhism ever flourished in Central America, it certainly was not the pure religion of Schakia as it now exists in Nepaul, Thibet, and other parts of Asia, but a new religion, built upon its foundations. For the missionaries of Schakiamunis were in a manner Jesuits, who, the more readily to attain their aim, either based their doctrines upon, or intermixed them with, the existing manners and customs. The myth of the birth of the terrible Aztec god of war may possibly be a faded remain of the old Indian religion. Huitzilopotschli of Mexico was born in the same wonderful manner as Schakia of India ; his mother saw a ball floating in the air, but one of shining feathers, placed it in her bosom, became pregnant, and gave birth to the terrible son, who came into the world with a spear in his right hand, a shield in his left, and a waving tuft of green feathers on his head. Juan de Grijalva, the nephew of Velas quez, was so much struck with the many instances of a high state of civilisation, and particularly with the magnificent buildings of Mexico, that he named the
1 These circles suggest tlie eight rings of Odin, preserved in the eight arches of Norse towers. The ring of Odiii produced every eighth night eight similar rings. It may be worth remarking in this connection, that the small pot-bellied phallic images in gold found in the graves of Central America, bear an extraordinary resemblance to a similar figure found iu Ireland, and depicted on Etruscan vases. — C. G. L.
2 Asiatic Researches, xvi. 316.
THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN. 37
peninsula New Spain, which term has since been ex tended to a much greater portion of the New World.
FUSANG, MAGUEY, AGAVE AMERICANA.
We know that the flora of the north-western part of America is closely allied to that of China, Japan,, and other lands of Eastern Asia.1 We may also assume that the Fusang-tree was formerly found in America, and afterwards, through neglect, became extinct. Tobacco and Indian-corn seem always to have been as natural to China as to the New World.2 It is, however, much more probable that the traveller described a plant hitherto unknown to him, which supplies as many wants in Mexico as the original Fusang is said to do in Eastern Asia — I mean the great American aloe (Agave America.no), called by the Indians " Maguey," which is so remarkably abundant in the plains of New Spain. /From the crushed leaves, even at the present day, a firm paper is prepared. Upon such paper those hieroglyphic manuscripts alluded to by the Buddhist missionary, and destroyed by the fanatic Spaniards, were written. From the sap an intoxicating drink is made. Its large stiff leaves serve to roof their low huts, and the fibres supply them with a variety of thread and ropes. From the boiled roots they prepare an agreeable food, and the thorns serve for pins and
1 Prescott, i. 143.
2 A very doubtful assertion, as regards tobacco. Vide communications in "Notes and Queries for China." — C. G. L.
38 THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
needles. This wonderful plant, therefore, provides them with food, drink, clothing, and writing materials ; being, in fact, so fully satisfactory to every want of the Mexi cans, that many persons, well acquainted with the land and its inhabitants, have asserted that the maguey-plant must/ "be exterminated , ere sloth and idleness, the two gre&t impediments which hinder them from attaining a higher social position, can be checked.-
METALS AND MONEY.
The use of iron, now found so plentifully in New Spain, was, as the Buddhist correctly remarked, un known in Mexico. Copper and brass supplied its place, as was indeed the case at an early period in other countries. The natives prepared, according to An tonio de Herrera, two sorts of copper, a hard and a soft, the former of which was used to manufacture cutting tools and agricultural instruments, and the latter for pots and all manner of household implements. They understood the working of silver, tin, and lead mines ; but neither the silver nor the gold which they picked up on the surface of the earth, or found in the beds of rivers, served as a circulating medium. These metals were not particularly prized in that land. Pieces of tin in the form of a common hammer,1 and bundles of
1 Do not these hammer-shaped Mexican coins bear a resemblance to the well-known shoe-shaped ingots of Sycee silver current in China ? As regards the copper, recent discoveries indicate that it was brought by the Mexicans from the shores of Lake Superior. The highest northern traces of Mexican art and influence are, I believe, to be found in Tennessee. — C. G» L.
THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
39
cacao containing a determined number of seeds, were the usual money.
LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF THE AZTECS.
The laws of the Aztecs were very strict, yet in the few remaining fragments of their hieroglyphical pictures we find no trace of the regulations of the land " Fusang." There existed, however, in the days of Montezuma, an hereditary nobility, divided into several ranks, of which authors give contradictory statements. Zurita speaks of four orders of chiefs, who were exempted from the payment of taxes, and enjoyed other immunities.1
Their method of marrying resembled that practised at the present day in Kamtschatka. We have no account of their mourning ceremonies, but know that the king had a particular palace in which he passed the time of mourning for his nearest relatives.2 On the festivals of the gods they sounded horns and trum pets ; this may have been done by the companions of the king, as to a representative of the godhead.3
The Aztecs reckoned according to a period of fifty- two years, and knew very exactly the time of the revolution of the earth about the sun. The ten-year cyclus spoken of in the Chinese report may have been a subdivision of the Aztec period, or have even been
1 Prescott, i. 18. ~ Mithridates, iii. 33.
3 Berual Diaz : Historia de la Conquista, pp. 152, 153. Prescott, iii. 87, 97.
40 THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
used as an independent period, as was the case with the Chinese, who term their notations " stems." It is worthy of remark that among the Mongols and Mantchons these " stems " are named after colours, which perhaps have some relation to the several colours of the royal clothing in the cyclus of Fusang.1 These Tartaric tribes term the first two years of the ten-year cyclus " green and greenish;" the two next " red and reddish," ! and so, in continuation, yellow and yellowish, white and whitish, and finally black and blackish. It appears, however, impossible to bring this cyclus of the Aztecs into any relation with those of the Asiatics, who universally reckon by periods of sixty years.
DOMESTIC ANIMALS.
The Aztecs had no beasts of draught or of burden. Horses were not found in the New World. The report of the Chinese missionary has, therefore, no connection with the later Mexican reigns. Two varieties of wild oxen with large horns ranged in herds on the plains of the Kio del Norte.3 These might have been tamed by the earlier inhabitants, and used as domestic animals. Stag's horns have been found in the ruins of Mexican buildings ; and Montezuma showed the Spaniards, as curiosities, immensely large horns of this description.
1 Gaubil : Observations Mathe"matiques, Paris, 1732, ii. 135.
2 The second couple being termed red agrees with that of the Fusang cyclus.— C. G. L.
1 Humboldt : Neuhispanien, ii. 138.
THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN. 41
It is possible that the stags formerly ranged from New California, and other regions of North America, where they are still found in great numbers, to the interior of Mexico. To a native of China it must have seemed remarkable that the Mexicans should have prepared butter from, hind's milk, since such a thing has seldom been done in China, either in ancient or modern times. When the inhabitants of Chusan saw the English sailors milking she-goats, they could not retain their gravity. It is indeed possible that the Chinese have described an animal similar to the horse with the character Ma, or horse, for changes of this nature are of frequent occurrence.1 In such a manner many names of animals in the Old World have been applied to others of an entirely different nature in the New. The eastern limits of the Asiatic Continent are also the limits of the native land of the horse, and it appears that it was first taken in the third century of our era from Korea into Japan. But let the error in regard to the American horses have come from what source it will, the unprejudiced, circumspect inquirer will not be
1 It is usual for all ignorant or unscientific people to give to animals for which they have no name that of some other creature with which they are familiar. Thus the gipsies speak of a fox as a iceshni juckal, or wood-dog; of an elephant as a ~boro nalkescro yry, or great-nosed horse ; of a monkey as a bombaros, and a lion as a boro bombaros, or big monkey, from their connection in menageries. Professor Neumann was probably ignorant of the fact, to which I allude more fully in another place, that the fossil remains of many horses found in America are of so recent a period, according to Professor Leidy, that they were probably coeval with man. — C. G. L.
THE NARRATIVE OF HOE I- SHIN.
determined on account of it to declare the entire story of Fusaug-Mexico an idle tale. It appears to me that this description of the western coast of America is at least as authentic as the discovery of the eastern coast, as narrated in Icelandic sagas.
CHAPTER V.
CHINESE AND JAPANESE IN KAMTSCHATKA AND THE HAWAIIAN GROUP.
A NUMBER of facts, taken from the occurrences of later times, may be alleged to support the theory of a former intercourse of China and Japan with the islands which lie between those countries and America, and also with the western coast of the latter. Even if the Chinese and Japanese (to whom, with their knowledge of the compass, such an enterprise would have presented no difficulties) have never at any time intentionally under taken a voyage to America, it has nevertheless hap pened that ships from Eastern Asia, China, and Japan, as well as those of Russians from Ochotsk and Karn- tschatka, have been cast away on the islands and coasts of the New World.1 The earliest Spanish travellers and discoverers heard of foreign merchants who had landed on the north-west coast of America, and even assert that they saw fragments of a Chinese vessel.2 This much we know, that the crew of a Japanese junk acci-
1 An account of a Russian ship cast away, A.D. 1761, on the coast of California, may be found in the travels of several Jesuit missionaries iu America, published by Murr, Nuremberg, 1785, p. 337.
2 Torquemada, Mou. Ind., iii. 7 ; Acosta, Hist. Nat. Amer., iii. 12.
44 THE NARRA TIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
dentally discovered a great continent in the East, re mained there over winter, and safely returned home. The Japanese have remarked that the land extended further to the north-west,1 They may have wintered in California, and then coasted as far north as Aliaska. Another Japanese vessel was wrecked about the end of the year 1832 on Oahu, one of the Sandwich Islands, concerning which the Hawaiian Spectator contained the following observation :2 — " This Japanese vessel had nine men on board, who were bringing fish from one of the southern Chinese islands to Jeddo. A storm blew them out into the open sea, where they were driven about between ten and eleven months, until they finally landed in the haven Waiala, in the island Oahn, The ship was wrecked, but the men were brought safely to Honolulu, where they remained eighteen months, and then, by their own desire, were sent to Kam- tschatka, whence they hoped to steal quietly into their own country; for the barbarously cruel. Government of Japan,3 mindful of the artifices of the Portuguese
1 Kampfer : Geschichte von Japan, Lemgo, 17/7, i. 82.
2 Hawaiian Spectator, i. 296, quoted in Belcher's "Voyage Round tLo World," London, 1843, i. 304. Also see "History of the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands, from the earliest traditionary period to the present time," by James Jackson Jarvis, London, 1843. I have been personally well acquainted with both these writers, and can commend their works u3 those of men of accurate observation. Jarvis states that, according to the tradition of the islanders, several such vessels had been wrecked upon Hawaii before the island was discovered by whites or Europeans. — C. G. L.
3 The reader will please to remember that all this was written thirty years ago, before Japan had entered on the great race of civilisation.
THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN. 45
Jesuits, and continually fearing some plot on the part of the neighbouring Russians, have forbidden even the return of their own shipwrecked countrymen. As the natives of Hawaii," so continues the Spectator , " saw these foreigners, so similar to themselves in external appearance, and in many manners and cus toms, they were astonished, and declared unanimously, 6 There is no doubt on the subject ; we came from Asia.'" Another example of a Japanese vessel in America, and of the unreflecting, jealous policy of the Dairi, is as follows : — During the winter of 1833-34, a Japanese junk was wrecked on the north-west coast of America, in the vicinity of Queen Charlotte's Island, and the numerous crew, weakened by hunger, were murdered by the natives, with the exception of two persons. The Hudson Bay Company kindly took charge of these survivors, and sent them, in 1834, to England, whence they were forwarded to Macao. This was considered a fortunate event, and the English hoped that the Japan ese Government, mindful of such kind treatment of their subjects, would show themselves grateful, and perhaps remove the restrictions against all foreigners. In vain. The ship that was to restore to the Japanese rulers their subjects, and at the same time aid in the missionary enterprise (Karl Giitzlaff being on board), was received with a salute of cannon-balls, and obliged to leave, with unfulfilled intentions, the shores of this inhospitable land.
All of these facts show, however, and indeed suffi-
46 THE NARRATIVE OF HOET-SHIN.
ciently, that the passage of Eastern Asiatics to the western islands and shores of America is in the highest degree possible. And it is also possible that the inha bitants of these islands, in their weak boats, may from time to time, accidentally or intentionally, have landed upon the Asiatic Continent. " It is wonderful," says the Jesuit Hieronymus d'Angelis, the first European who landed in Jeso (A.D. 1G1S), "how bold and expe rienced are these people in the management of then vessels. In their frail boats they often undertake voyages of from two to three months' duration ; anc. however often they may be wrecked, still there are ever new adventurers ready to take their place and run the same risks.*'
THE FUTURE OF EASTERN ASIA.
The pride and barbarism of the numerous countries situated on the coasts of Asia and America, as well as of the inhabitants of the islands lying between, have forbidden hitherto any hope of a relation, commercial or otherwise, between them and the more enlightened world. Our age, however, which has broken through so many obstacles, never again to be closed, will ulti mately break the chains of Eastern Asia, and give a world-movement (Weltbercegung) to the immense num bers imprisoned there. When this- shall have been fully accomplished — and the beginning has already taken place — we can first hope for a regular, unbroken union between the Eastern and the Western World.
REMARKS
OX THE
TEXT OF PROFESSOR NEUMANN,
CHAPTER VI.
FUSANG AND PERU.
SINCE the foregoing chapters were written, the author — my old friend and teacher — has passed away, and the prophecy with which his work ended has been sin gularly fulfilled. China is now thoroughly opened, and Japan, once proverbial for its exclusiveness, goes beyond more than one European country in her zeal to Europeanise. And I believe that time will show, when the records of these countries shall have been more carefully searched, that the same insight which induced Carl F. Neumann to prophecy the speedy open ing of the East, was not at fault when he declared, on apparently slight data, his faith that in an early age the Chinese had penetrated Western America as far as Mexico. It should be especially observed that, in commenting on the simple record of the old monk Hoei-Shiu, Pro fessor Neumann judiciously reminds the reader that the information given " goes back into a period long ante rior to the most remote ages alluded to in the obscure legends of the Aztecs, resting upon uncertain interpre tations of hieroglyphics." One thing we know, that in America, as in Asia or Europe, one wave of emigration
D
So REMARKS ON TEXT OF PROF. NEUMANN.
and conquest swept after another, each destroying in a great measure all traces of its predecessor. Thus in Peru the Inca race ruled over the lower caste, and would in time have probably extinguished it. But the Incas themselves were preceded by another and evidently more Drifted race, since it is now known that these
O /
mysterious predecessors were far abler than themselves as architects. " Who this race were," says Prescott,1 "and whence they came, may afford a tempting theme for inquiry to the speculative antiquarian. But it is a land of darkness, that lies far beyond the domain of history.'' Problems as difficult, and far more unpromising, have, however, been solved within a few years, and entire literatures, histories, and languages have been exhumed, literally from the soil. Let me instance, for example, the earthen cylinders of Nineveh, of whose records it may not only be said, " Dust thou art, and to dust slialt thou return," but also, in the higher spirit of Chris tianity and humanity, " and from dust thou shalt rise again." Nullce latent ;, qua non patent. And there is a possibility that even in this secret of secrets, Old Pern, there lurks some slight possibility of elucidating the question of the Chinese in Mexico in the fifth century. For as the American waves of conquest flowed south, it is no extravagant hypothesis to assume that the race of men whom the monk encountered in " Fusang " may possibly have had something in common with what was
1 Conquest of Peru, chap. I., i. 12, 13, edit. 1847. Vide note on page 60 of this work.
REMARKS ON TEXT OF PROF. NEUMANN. 51
afterwards found farther south in the land of the Incas. One thing is certain, that there is a singularly Peruvian air in all that this short narrative tells us of the land Fusang. Fortified places, it says, were unknown, though there was evidently a high state of civilisa tion ; and yet this strange anomaly appears to have actually existed in ancient Peru, for Prescott speaks of the system of fortifications established through the empire as though it had originated with the Incas. Most extraordinary is, however, the remark of the monk that the houses are built with wooden beams. Now, as houses, all the world over, are generally con structed in this manner, the remark might seem almost superfluous. However, the Peruvians built their houses with wooden beams, and, as Prescott tells us, "knew no better way of holding the beams together than tying them with the thongs of maguey" -Xffow, be it re marked that the monk makes a direct transition from speaking of the textile fibre and fabric of th.3 maguey to the wooden beams of the houses — a coincidence which is at least striking, though it be no proof. It is precisely as though he had the maguey in his memory, and were about to add it to his mention of the wooden • beams. ,And we may notice that this construction of houses^was admirably adapted to a land of earthquakes such as Southern America, and that Prescott himself testifies that a number of them " still survive, while the more modern constructions of the conquerors are buried in ruins."
52 REMARKS ON TEXT OF PROF. NEUMANN.
Most strikingly Peruvian is the monk's account of the kingdom and the nobles. The name Ichi is very like the natural Chinese pronunciation of the word Inca. The stress laid on the three ranks of nobles suggests the Peruvian Inca castes of lower grade, as well as the Mexican ; while the stately going forth of the king, " accompanied by horns and trumpets," vividly recalls Prescott's account of the journeyings of the Peruvian potentate. The change of the colour of his garments according to the astronomical cycle is, however, more thoroughly in accordance with the spirit of the institu tions of the Children of the Sun than anything which we have met in the whole of this strange and obsolete record. And it is indeed remarkable that Professor Neumann, who had already indicated the southern course of Aztec or of Mexican civilisation, and who manifested, as the reader may have observed, so much shrewdness in ad ducing testimony for the old monk's narrative, did not search more closely into Peruvian history for that con firmation which a slight inquiry seems to indicate is by no means wanting in it. Thus, with regard to the observation of the seasons, Prescott tells us that " the ritual of the Incas involved a routine of observances as complex and elaborate as ever distinguished that of any nation, whether pagan or Christian." Each month had its appropriate festival, or rather festivals. The four principal had reference to the sun, and comme morated the great periods of his annual progress, the solstices and equinoxes. Garments of a peculiar wool,
REMARKS ON TEXT OF PROF. NEUMANN. 53
and feathers of a peculiar colour, were reserved to the Inca. I cannot identify the blue, red, yellow, and black (curiously reminding one of the alchemical elementary colours still preserved by a strange feeling for antiquity or custom in chemists' windows), but it is worthy of remark that the rainbow was the Inca's special attribute or scutcheon, and that his whole life was passed in accordance with the requisitions of astro nomical festivals ; and the fact that different colours were reserved to him, and identified with him, is very curious, and establishes a strange analogy with the narrative of Hoei-shin.
I would, however, specially observe on this subject of the cycles and changes of colours corresponding to astronomical mutations, that Montesinos1 expressly as serts that the Peruvians threw their years into cycles of ten — a fact which has quite escaped the notice of Neumann, who conjectures that the decade of Fusang may have been a subdivision of the Aztec period, or even have been used as an independent one, as was indeed the case with the Chinese, who termed these notations " stems." " It is worthy of remark," he adds, " that among the Mongols and Mantchous these 6 stems ' are named after colours, which, perhaps, have some relation to the several colours of the royal clothing in the cycles of Fusang. These Tartaric tribes term the first two years of the ten-year cyclus, green and greenish,
1 Montesinos : Hemorias Antiquas, MS., lib. ii. cap. 7. Vide Prescott's Conquest of Peru, bk. i. p. 128.
54 REMARKS ON TEXT OF PROF, NEUMANN.
the next red and reddish, and so on, yellow and yellowish, white and whitish, and finally black and blackish."-
Peru, certainly, is not Mexico ; but I would here recall my former observation that Mexico might have been at one time peopled by a race having Peruvian customs, which in after years were borne by them far to the south. The ancient mythology and ethnography of Mexico present in their turn a mass of curious, though perhaps accidental, identities with those of Asia. And both Mexico and Peru had the tradition of a deluge from which seven prisoners escaped. In the hieroglyphs of the former country, these seven are represented -as issuing from an egg.
O GO
"We may note also that a Peruvian tradition declares the first missionaries of civilisation who visited them to have been white and bearded. " This may re mind us," says Prescott, " of the tradition existing among the Aztecs in respect to Quetzalcoatl, the good deity, who, with a similar garb and aspect, came up the great plateau from the east, on a like benevolent mission
1 Mr Hyde Clarke Las pointed out, in some remarks to which I shall again have occasion to refer, that there are many curious circumstances as to the use of colours in connection with numbers ; and that, for instance in many of the prehistoric languages, the word for red and that for the number two were identical. Very little can be inferred from this, and nothing can be based upon it, but the coincidence, though slight, is curious, and may serve as a basis for future observation. Red, it may be remarked, is the second colour in the Fusang cyclus as mentioned by Hoei-shin. In the symbolism of the Roman Catholic Church, blue and white are identi fied in the Pope, but the Cardinals next him, or the second rank, wear red. Red, as I have already indicated, was the colour both of the second Tartar and second Fusang couple of years in the cyclus.
REMARKS ON TEXT OF PROF. NEUMANN. 55
to the natives." In the same way the Aesir, Children of Light, or of the Sun, came from the east to Scandi navia, and taught the lore of the gods.
The Peruvian embalming of the royal dead takes us back to Egypt ; the burning of the wives of the deceased Incas reveals India ; the singularly patriarchal charac ter of the whole Peruvian policy is like that of China in the olden time ; while the system of espionage, of tranquillity, of physical well-being, and the iron-like immovability in which their whole social frame was cast bring before us Japan — as it was a very few years ago. In fact, there is something strangely Japanese iu the entire cultus of Peru as described by all writers.
It is remarkable that the Supreme Being of the Peruvians was worshipped under the names of Pacha- comae, " He who sustains or gives life to the universe," and of Viraeocha,1 " Foam of the Sea," a name strik ingly recalling Venus Aphrodite, the female and second principle of life in many ancient mythologies. Not less curious (if authentic) is the tradition of the Vestal Virgins of the Sun, who, it is said, were buried alive if detected in an intrigue, and whose duty it was to keep burning the sacred fire obtained at the festival of Kaynri.
" Vigilemque sacraverat ignem Excubias divuin seternas."
This fire was obtained, as by the ancient Romans, on
i To-day in Peru -white men are called Viracochas. "Myths of the New World," by D. G. Brinton, M.D., New York, 1868, p. ISO.
56 REMARKS ON TEXT OF PROF. NEUMANN.
a precisely similar occasion, by means of a concave mirror of polished metal.1 The Incas, in order to pre serve purity of race, married their own sisters, as did the kings of Persia, and of other Oriental nations, urged by a like feeling of pride, and possibly in accor dance with a faith in the physical law set forth a few years ago in the Fortnightly and the Westminster Reviews. Among the Peruvians, mama signified mother, while papa was applied to the chief priest. " With both, the term seems to embrace in its most comprehen sive sense the paternal relation, in which it is more familiarly employed by most of the nations of Europe."
It has been observed that, as in the case of the Green Corn Festival ^f the Creek Indians of Georgia,2 many striking analogies can be established between the Indian tribes of North America and the Peruvians. Gallatin has shown the affinity of languages between all the American aborigines. It is possible that the first race which subsequently spread southward, may with modifications have occupied the entire north.
Let the reader also remember, that while the proofs of the existence or residence of Orientals in America are extremely vague and uncertain— and I trust that it
1 The Liang-sze-kung-ki says that envoys from Fusang to China brought, as tribute, square and circular mirrors more than a foot in cir cumference. These were called "gems for observing the sun "—possibly metallic burning-glasses. Vide " Notes and Queries for China and Japan " 1870.
2 Vide " The Green Corn Dance," from an unpublished MS. by John Howard Payne, author of "Home, Sweet Home," in the Continental Monthly. Boston, 1862.
REMARKS ON TEXT OF PROF. NEUMANN. 57
will be borne in mind that this admission has been made sincerely and cheerfully — and while they are sup ported only by coincidences, the antecedent probability of their having come hither, or having been able to come, is stronger than the Norse discovery of the New World, or even than that of Columbus himself would appear to be. Let the reader take the map of the Northern Pacific ; let him ascertain for himself the fact that from Kamtschatka, which was well known to the old Chinese, to Aliaska, the journey is far less arduous than from China proper, and it will be seen that there was in all probability abundant intercourse of some kind between the continents. In early times, the Chinese were bold and skilful navigators, to whom the chain of the Aleutian Islands would have been simply like steppiog-stones over a shallow brook to a child. For it is a well-ascertained fact, that a sailor in an open boat might cross from Asia to America by the Aleutian Islands in summer-time, and hardly ever be out of sight of land, and this in a part of the sea gene rally abounding in fish, as is proved by the fishermen who inhabit many of these islands, on which fresh water is always to be found. Nor when in Aliaska would the emigrant from Asia be deterred, during half the year at least, by the severity of the climate. If the country be not, as the late Mr Seward was jocosely said to have declared, abounding in pine-apples and polar bears, icebergs and strawberries, it is at least tolerably habit able, as I know by the testimony of several friends —
58 REMARKS ON TEXT OF PROF. NEUMANN.
one of whom even wintered out there while searching for gold — and from a Russian - English newspaper published in that remote country. From a number of this newspaper, containing the advertisement of books published by Nicholas Triibner of London, I infer that a very fair degree of luxury, not devoid of erudition, may now be attained in Aliaska. In short, to an enter prising Buddhist monk, inspired with the zeal of a missionary, this* journey to Fusang does not present one half the difficulties which thousands of exactly such monks undergo at the present day in their journeyings over the vast and sterile plains and through the hostile mountain ranges of Central Asia. I have, indeed, no doubt that, even as I write, there is living, travelling, and preaching, more than one such Eastern Cordelier, bearing literally the very name of Hoei-shin, whose journeyings have been as wide, as wild, and as weary as those of him who long ago returned and told, like King Thibault of Navarre, his story of lauds beyond
sea —
" Outre mer j'ay fait mon pelerinage, Et sonlTert ay moult grande dommage,"
— and so passed away to a quiet cloister grave. The bedesman sleeps among his ashes cold, little think ing, before he died, that more than a thousand years after his story had been told it would rise again thousands of miles away, and go, for men to read, even in Tahan itself.
Seriously enough, the only real marvel as regards the
REMARKS ON TEXT OF PROF. NEUMAXX. 59
probability of the Chinese having been in Mexico thirteen hundred years ago would be that they were never there, and did not make the journey. When we see a nation, as China once was, with a religious pro paganda, sending missionaries thousands of miles be yond its borders ; boasting a commerce, and gifted with astronomers and geographers of no mean ability, we must certainly believe that it made many discoveries. And when we find its pioneers advancing for centuries in a certain direction, chronicling correctly every step made, and accurately describing the geography and ethnography of every region on the way, we have no ground to deny the last advance which their authentic history claims to have made, however indisposed we may be to admit it. One thing, at least, will probably be cheerfully conceded by the impartial reader, that the subject well deserves further investigation, which it will obtain from those students who are occupied in exploring the mysteries of Oriental literature and the archaeology of both worlds.
60 REMARKS ON TEXT OF PROF. NEUMANN.
NOTE TO CHAPTER VI.
I would not be understood as intimating that the civilisation of Fusang was simply Peruvian. Some of the peculiarities observed by Hoei-shin — as, for example, the manner of wooing, the exposure of the dead, and the possible origin of his Kingdom of Women — existed in a strongly-marked form among the Red Indians ; others recall New Mexican or Aztec culture, as it may have been ere driven south ; and there are, withal, Siberian - Mongolian traces. But I cannot resist the feeling, which has grown on me through years of study on this subject, that in the fifth century the Buddhist monk visited a race combining characteristics and customs which afterwards spread to the south and east. All that he observed is singularly American, and, from the tone of the narrative, was evidently new to the missionary. Since Prescott wrote, many investigators have declared that the civilisation once attributed entirely to the Iricas, was derived by them from earlier races which they had supplanted. Thus Thomas J. Hutchinson (" Two Years in Peru, by T. J. Hutchinson, F.H.G.S., &c.," London, 1873) tells us that the Chincas preceded the Yuncas, and that the Yun- cas were conquered by the Inca Pachacutec so recently as the fifteenth century of our era. Tradition also gives the names of several races as preceding the Chincas in Peru. It is, however, conjectured that, whatever the race may have been which occu pied Peru, it took from its predecessors culture which they in like manner had inherited. In endeavouring to find some analogy between Fusang as described by Hoei-shin, and Peru as described by Prescott, I by no means consider that the cus toms attributed to the Incas were unknown before their time.
LETTER
FROM
COLONEL BARCLAY KENNON
ON THE
NAVIGATION OF THE NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN.
CHAPTER VII.
NAVIGATION OF THE NORTH PACIFIC.
IT will naturally have occurred to the reader that the strongest proof which can be alleged in favour of the journey of Hoei-shin and his Buddhist predecessors to the Continent of North America is the demonstration of the ease with which it could be performed. This has indeed been largely shown by Professor Neumann, and I am. happy in being able to state that more recent researches have thrown additional light on this very curious question. While writing the last pages of the foregoing chapter, I was so fortunate as to meet in London with Colonel Barclay Kennon, who is person ally and practically familiar with every step which Hoei-shin and his mysterious five predecessors must have taken, he having been the navigating-officer in the North Pacific, China Seas, and Behring's Straits, of the United States North Pacific Surveying Expedition, 1853-56, Lieutenant John Eodgers commanding. This gentleman was so kind as to take an interest in my work, and obligingly communicated to me, in a letter which I subjoin, such facts as he could recall in reference to Professor Neumann's verifications. I trust that it
64 LETTER FROM COL. B. KENNON ON
will not be out of place for me to state that Colonel Kennon, a graduate of Annapolis Naval Academy, United States of America, was the first person who ever made a cast of the lead for the first Transatlantic cable, October 4, 1852, and in 1857 was, as Lieutenant of the United States Navy, navigating-officer of the ship Niagara, by which the first Atlantic cable was laid— although it cannot be denied that, as is the case with too many beginnings, it came to grief. After the Civil War, Lieutenant Kennon entered the Egyptian service as Colonel. He is the inventor of the well-known Counterpoise Battery, for the protection of artillery in coast defence, and was decorated by the Khedive for the construction of a fort on this principle.
It should be borne in mind that, as regards the passage of the short distances between Asia and America by the Aleutian chain, where one is out of sight of land for a very short time, the vessels of North-eastern Asia were formerly built for long voyages and oceanic navi gation, and actually did sail for weeks together out on the open sea ; that the compass was probably used by them before the fifth century, and that at the present day Japanese vessels are still rigged in a much more sea-going style than Chinese junks, and are conse quently capable of easier and more extended navigation.
The evidence offered in favour of the discovery of America by the Chinese Buddhists of the fifth century is very limited, but it has every characteristic of a serious State document, and of authentic history. It is dis-
NAVIGATION OF NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN. 65
tinctly recorded amoDg the annals of the Empire. At the time these journeys were undertaken, thousands of monks, inspired by the most fanatical zeal, were ex tending their doctrines in every direction ; and this they did with such success, that though Buddhism has now been steadily declining for many centuries, it still numbers more followers than Christianity, or any other religion on the face of the earth, for they are literally counted by hundreds of millions. And as their doctrines urged propagandism, it would be almost a matter of wonder if some of the missionaries of the faith had not found their way over an already familiar route.
LETTER from COLONEL BARCLAY KENNON, formerly of the United States North Pacific Surveying Expe dition.
" LONDON, April 3, 1S74.
" DEAR SIR, — As regards the possible passage at an early age of Chinese to the North American Continent, I regret to say that I have devoted too little thought to such a subject to be of use to you, beyond giving a fair idea of the distances between point and point from China to Japan, and thence, via the Kurile and Aleutian Islands, to the Western Coast of America. I have at present unfortunately no map, chart, or notes to guide me or refresh my memory, and so must depend solely upon it. Thus far, however, it has not misled me in other respects, and it certainly should not in this case, if it be considered that I was the sailing-master of the
66 LETTER FROM COL. B. KENNON ON
surveying schooner which was specially appointed to follow, examine, and map out this route.
" After leaving Shanghai direct for Japan, a vessel sights Alceste Island when about 200 miles from the mouth of the Yang-tse-kiang, upon a branch of which river, the AVoo-sung, Shanghae is situated. From Al ceste Island to the Gotto Islands, which are directly upon the Japanese coast, and two miles from its extreme western end, the distance is about 120 miles. In making this trip, a fair wind, with < plenty of it,' will very soon take a vessel from point to point. The distance across from one point on the Chinese coast is still shorter, or about 100 miles S. S.E. from the Yang-tse-kiang. Many islands lie off this point, which, being lost sight of at a distance of twenty or more miles, will materially diminish the time for being in the open sea. In fact, no ordinary Chinese or Japanese fisherman would hesitate to make these trifling voyages for so short a time out of sight of land, and hundreds do make much more dangerous ventures every day along the coast. From the Yang- tse-kiang direct to the coast of Korea the distance is less than a day's sail, or only eighteen hours by coasting it, till we reach the Straits of Korea, when a few hours take us over to the Straits of Krusenstern. separated by islands, and thence direct to the Gotto Islands. Or we may sail for the island of Oki, and cross the straits (which received in our survey, and on our map, the name of Rodgers' Straits), which are from ten
NAVIGATION OF NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN. 67
to twenty miles wide, and thus reach the coast of Japan, la either case, land is not long lost sight of, the open sea distances being very trifling.
" Starting from Hong Kong Island, farther south, a run of thirty- six hours takes us to the island of For mosa. To the eastward of it, and in sight from each other, are the Madjico Sima Islands, and to the eastward of them are visible those of Amakirima. In full view with these, again, the southernmost of the Loo-choo Islands, dependencies of Japan, of which Shapa is the capital, heaves in sight. Eunning north through this group to the coast of Japan, one island is hardly below the horizon before another makes its appearance, or in a very few hours, the last being in sight when close to the south-west end of Niphon, the largest of the Japan ese Islands. These latter lie N.E. and S.W. ; so that by following either coast-line until the Kuriles are reached, land will always be in sight. The Kurile Islands, stretching between the island of Matsumai (the northernmost of the Japan group, and upon which Hakododi, the chief port and town, is situated), and Cape Lapatka, the southern extremity of Kamtschatka, are in sight from each other, excepting possibly in the ' Boussole Passage,' which is forty or more miles in width. A vessel in the centre of it will have the islands marking its boundaries in sight; so that as soon as the voyager passes from one land, he immediately perceives the other. Kamtschatka, once seen, is not easily lost sight of, as its high mountains
68 LETTER FROM COL. B. KENNON ON
are visible for more than a hundred miles. The highest peak, just north of Avataka Bay, containing the harbour and remains of the town of Petropaulski, is a volcano ; and, if my memory does not mislead me, it is more than 18,000 feet in height, the line of perpetual snow begin ning some distance below the crater, and terminating at a point some thousands of feet above the sea-level. This line, of course, offers a mark which can be seen farther out at sea than would a mountain of the same height, if entirely covered up to its summit. Proceed ing along this coast to Cape Kronotski, which lies north of Petropaulski, the distance to Behring's Island is about 150 miles — course, east. Fifteen miles only from it is Copper Island, and about 150 miles south west of it is Attou Island, the most -westerly of the Aleutian group, which is an almost unbroken chain, connecting with the American Continent at the penin sula of Aliaska.
"Attou Island, situated in latitude 53° 1ST., longitude 173° E. (in round numbers), has the pretty little har bour of Tchitchagoff, which we surveyed with much care, believing that it might prove useful at some future day. Owing to the trouble and care with which this work was done, the three islands standing off its en trance were named after the vessel, Cooper ; the captain, Gibson ; and myself. It may not be out of place to state, that the schooner Fenimore Cooper was originally a small New York pilot-boat of seventy-five tons, and that for two years in these stormy Northern Seas I
NAVIGATION OF NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN. 69
spent a happy life on board of, and sailed upwards of 40,000 miles in her. After leaving New York she went to Africa, Java, China, Japan, California, and back to Japan, where she finally ' laid her bones to dry.'
" Next to Alton Island, and close to it, is Agattou and Semichi ; and before losing sight of either of them, Boulder Island, distant forty-five miles from Agattou, heaves in sight. Kusha, the Island of the Seven Moun tains — all of which are volcanoes, either extinct or active — and Amtchitka come next. These are the Krysi or Rat Islands. Next to Amtchitka, in the Andranof group, is Tonago, volcanic, Adakh, Atkha, and Ammnak, with other smaller islands between them, all in sight one from the other. Adakh has a fair harbour for small vessels, but is not inhabited. We were three weeks there. In Atkha there is a not inconsiderable settlement, and good anchorage. Here we found a Greek priest, whose wife, a Georgian, was really beautiful, as were their two daughters. At this time the Russian War was at its height, and the supplies of these poor people being exhausted, and themselves in great dis tress, we found it a great pleasure to relieve them — particularly the ladies, who were the first we had seen for many months. I need not say how delighted they were to receive a good stock of sugar, coffee, tea, medicines, and i canned fruit.'
" Between Ammnak and Unalashka are, I believe, eight islands. This group bears the name of the Fox
70 LETTER FROM COL. B. KENNON ON
Islands. The whole chain, from Attou to Unalashka inclusive, is called the Aleutians, the easternmost of which is very near the American mainland, or peninsula of Aliaska. A few of these islands are inhabited, the people bearing a strong resemblance to the Kuriles, who, in turn, are like the Nootka Sound Indians,1 whose country is on the mainland to the eastward of the peninsula of Aliaska, but which may actually be reached either in a vessel or on foot by following the coast-line.
" You wish to know if I can adduce any proofs or probabilities that during the great period from the fifth to the seventh centuries, when the world was so abundantly busy in making converts to its several re ligions, Buddhist priests passed by these islands. II' they did, they certainly could not have remained long in them, and must have hurried to the more hospitable shores of America. For there is literally not a tree on these islands — in fact, nothing resembling one, unless 1 except a few very small bushes, the tallest not more than three feet high, with no branches larger than a man's finger. From Aliaska a vessel could take the roundabout course of following the coast-line to reach
1 I have verified by many inquiries the assertion that there is a con tinuous line of likeness between the natives from the North-west Coatst of America to the Asiatic Continent. " I find myself more and more inclined to believe," says John D. Baldwin, in his "Ancient America," . . . . " that the wild Indians of the north came originally from Asia, where the race to which they belong seems still represented by the KoraLs and Cookchees found in that part of Asia which extends to Behring's Straits."— C. G. L.
NAVIGATION OF NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN. 71
Sitka ; but a run of three or four days would, with, a good breeze, make the trip on a much more direct course — and likewise a more sensible one — by running down among the islands of the group in which Sitka is situated.
" From this place Vancouver's Island is soon reached ; that is to say, in three or four days, with land in sight nearly every hour of the time. Oregon is but a few hours' sail after this ; and by keeping in with the land, any lubber of a navigator can see his way down the coast to Cape Saint Lucas, the southern end of Cali fornia, which is distant about 200 miles west of Maza- tlan, Mexico. The prevailing winds are from the north ward, or from the north-westward, with a current (Kuro-suvo) setting to the southward. Vessels bound down the coast, to the southward, make the run quickly by keeping just outside the influence of the land-breezes ; while those bound up the coast should profit by them by sailing near the land. A small vessel, being able to run close in, could anchor when the sea-breezes set in during the day, but should lift her anchor at night, to make her northings with those from the land.
" From what I have written, and from the result of the most accurate scientific observation, it is evident that the voyage from China to America can be made without being out of sight of land for more than a few hours at any one time. To a landsman, unfamiliar with long voyages, the mere idea of being c alone on the wide, wide sea,' with nothing but water visible, even
72 LETTER FROM COL. B. KENNON ON
for an hour, conveys a strange sense of desolation, of daring, and of adventure. But in truth it is regarded as a mere trifle, not only by regular seafaring men, but even by the rudest races in all parts of the world ; and I have no doubt that from the remotest ages, and on all shores, fishermen in open boats, canoes, or even coracles, guided simply by the stars and currents, have not hesitated to go far out of sight of land. At the present day, natives of many of the South Pacific Islands undertake, without a compass, and successfully, long voyages which astonish even a regular Jack-tar, who is not often astonished at anything. If this can be done by savages, it hardly seems possible that the Asiatic-American voyage was not successfully per formed by people of advanced scientific culture, who had, it is generally believed, the compass, and who from an early age were proficient in astronomy.
" But though this voyage from the oldest portion of the Old World — historically speaking — to the newest portion of the New, can be made by remaining almost constantly in sight of land, I do not recommend it ; and I am sure that any man in any kind of a boat, who had sufficient enterprise and patience to undertake it, would have easily found the shorter route. But there is a still stronger argument for the voyage across having been undertaken, in this, that Chinese sailors had long been travelling in a route of which this was a mere continuation, and that not a very difficult one. For, in reality, from Singapore in Malacca to Batavia
NAVIGATION OF NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN. 73
ill the island of Java, and to Shanghai in China, the trip is almost an actual coasting one, the steamers nowadays running from point to point. To a lands man it is doubtless pleasant to see fresh islands every day, but a sailor greatly prefers the open sea, until he makes the land near his port. From Hakododi, Japan, the arc of the great circle joining it with San Francisco passes almost exactly beside the central island of the Aleutians. This distance is about 4250 miles. One objection to the route is this, the fogs about those islands being actually ten times worse, in every way, than those of London, they are avoided as much as possible by steering farther south, or rather by running more directly to the east. I may mention in this re lation, that I had a Kamtschatka dog on board the schooner, and found him more useful as a " look-out " than a shipload of sailors could have been, since they could have done literally nothing, while the dog seemed strangely attracted towards the land, and when smelling it, invariably stood with his head towards it, barking aloud, so that we were more than once thereby warned of its too close proximity.
" We have on our own coast, or that of the United States of North America, the Gulf Stream, which, flowing off to the eastward, and striking the shores of Europe, falls on them, and on those of Africa, down to about the equator, then running west to the coast of South America, passes its northern shores up through the Carribean Sea to between Yucatan and Cuba, and
74 LETTER FROM COL. B. KENNON ON
renews its course through, the Straits of Florida, and again up our coast. Now in the North Pacific there is another stream, called the Kuro-suvo, or Japanese Current, which, passing up the south-east side of the Japanese coast, flows off to the eastward until it reaches California ; then running down that coast, and that of Mexico and Central America, to latitude 10° N. (more or less), meets the Peruvian or Hum- boldt Current, when both bear away to the west and form the Northern Equatorial Current, which, extending to the Ladrone Islands, in latitude 18°, longitude 145°, turns towards the northernmost of the Lorchas Islands, and finally completes the circuit on the coast of Japan. It is much like the Atlantic Gulf Stream in many particulars, and its current is quite as strong in certain places, though the water in it is not so warm. This current is of great utility to vessels bound to the east ward, its counter-current being of course of correspond ing advantage to those sailing westward.
" From what I know of the track across from Asia to America, and from what I have seen of the Japanese and Chinese, I have no doubt whatever that from very early times they occasionally visited our American shores. Assuming that they took the route which I have de scribed, they would have been constantly in sight of land ; and there is something in the nature and appear ance of the frequently-recurring islands which would naturally tempt farther exploration, and lead them on. The weather is, it is true, cold at Behring's Straits
NAVIGATION OF NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN. 75
even in summer, but not one-fourth so cold as at Matsumai, Japan, in winter. A Japanese vessel, run ning up the Kamtschatka coast to the Bay of St Lawrence in Siberia, would have, at the utmost, only a day's sail, but probably less, to reach America; and by going that distance farther north, her crew could see land across Behring's Straits through the whole passage during the summer season, it being then free from ice, with an open sea and a moderate degree of cold. Nothing is more likely than that such visits were made by fur- hunters in former years; and as so many foreign countries ]ay within such easy sailing distance, it is probable that the Chinese and Japanese Governments— especially the latter — issued edicts for the building of all vessels upon a model which should very much limit their navigation, and confine them to short cruises.
" Few would believe, who are familiar with the Portuguese of the present day, or with their marine, that this people once supplied the adventurous navi gators who found their way to India by the way of the Cape of Good Hope ; and yet it is less than three hundred years since Vasco di Gama made that famous cruise. He coasted, as the records of the voyage show, and as the time spent would of itself prove ; and it is quite likely that Chinese and Japanese did the same thing until the sterns of their vessels were i stove in ' by order of their Governments, to restrict them to cruising nearer home.
" Columbus had a very different kind of work to do,
76 LETTER FROM COL. B. KENNON ON
for during the long cruise of many weeks which, he spent at sea, he saw nothing whatever until the end of his journey. Two of his vessels were much larger than the little schooner ' in which I sailed so many thousands of miles, and the Japanese junks with which I am familiar were generally five times larger, and with eight times the capacity of the little Fenimore Cooper. There is certainly no reason why they could not keep the sea as long as any other vessel. Columbus had ( caravels/ which were more or less open, but this is not the case with the Japanese junks, which are entirely closed.
" It is of some importance in this connection to ob serve, that when surveying the coast of Japan in 1854, I found the Japanese charts to be invariably very cor rect ; their latitudes, which came directly from ob servations of the heavenly bodies, being particularly so. Their longitudes, of course, did not agree with ours, for we were ignorant of their starting-point or primary meridian. The relative bearings and distances of places one from the other, with the outlines of the coast, were singularly accurate.
" The Japanese have doubtless very often made in voluntary voyages of much greater extent, and far more dangerous, than this from continent to continent. In 1849, when I was in the Sandwich Islands, I learned that an American whaler had picked up a Japanese junk about 2300 miles south-east of Japan, and had sent her people to China on board a passing vessel, from which
NAVIGATION OF NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN. 77
country they doubtless found their way back to their home. And I can distinctly remember that five years ago, and two years since alsoa Japanese junks were found among the Aleutian Islands, having been drifted thither by the Kuro-suvo Current, and impelled by westerly gales of wind. One was picked up on Adakh, which is nearly half-way over to San Francisco. Had these vessels been supplied with provisions, with such a trip in view as that of crossing the Pacific, there was nothing whatever to prevent their making it to and fro. In 1854 and 1855, when I was last in Japan, I often saw both women and children on board junks in which they had been to the Loo-choo Islands. Those I met with in the latter islands seemed to be as much the habitual homes of their owners and families as are the Chinese river-boats homes to those who inhabit them. In China one sees many families which have for gene rations been born and reared on board these little boats. And at present the actual floating population on the Canton river alone is estimated at over a million of souls.
" I have always regarded the Sandwich Islanders as cousins of the Japanese. There is quite enough in the general appearance of the two races to justify one in believing it. To me it seems as if some other blood existed there, very largely mingled or alloyed with Japanese, and the difference in manners, customs, reli gion, and other forms of culture, is owing to the Japanese element being in the minority. But suppos-
78 LETTER FROM COL. B. KENNON ON
ing them to have altogether descended from the Japanese, and this is far from being improbable,1 the few who first landed there, and from whom the whole group was peopled, found, in organising, voluntarily or involuntarily, a new form of government and new in stitutions, no more necessity to copy after their old types than did the early settlers of America in framing theirs. In fact, if they were exiles, like the first settlers of Iceland and many other countries, their natural im pulse would be to avoid forming anything like the tyranny from which they had fled or were banished. The Japanese have always had a highly-organised reli gion, while the Sandwich Islanders had as nearly none as was possible, and the melancholy history of their degradation and decay under European culture seems to indicate that they are incapable of receiving any. As to the difference or non-existence of customs, we have only to go to any of the i new countries ' of the present day to see that the so-called habits and pecu liarities of mankind, which once gave such interest to
1 It is a well-established fact, and one within rny own observation, that the children of Irish parents in America, even in the first generation, change materially from the ancestral Celtic type. This is especially remarkable in the girls, even when born and bred in the backwoods. The face becomes more oval, and the eyes darker (when not Gahvegian, or naturally dark), and softer in expression. The pure, unmixed Pennsylvania German stock retain the broad shoulders and heavy figure of their ancestors ; but the hair is generally much darker, and the eyes, which are often very beautiful, are, as in the Irish instance, larger. The same holds good, but in a less degree, I believe, of the children of English parents. The child of " Boston people," born in New Orleans, often becomes in the first genera tion a Creole, pale, sallow, and with constantly cold hands. — C. G. L.
NAVIGATION OF NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN.
79
elementary works on geography, are everywhere vanish ing as guides to help one in tracing the origin of races ; in fact, if civilisation at the present day, unlike the ancient, were not accompanied by the spirit of anti quarian research, and a passion for recording all that it learns, the past would soon vanish as regards all races without a written history. The differences in the mode of life, and in many other things, between the United States and England, are very marked. The Loo-chooese also vary in many respects from the Japanese, although their islands are in sight of each other, and the for mer are dependencies of the latter. Napa-kiang, in Loo-choo, is built of stone, while all the large Japanese cities are of wood. Again, the manner of dressing the hair varies entirely in these provinces, a matter which, while small in itself, constitutes a very serious difference in a race with which such trifles are of almost radical importance. The Loo-chooese and Japanese are the same people, but they build their houses differently, simply because one country abounds in wood and the other in stone ; and the difference in the arrangement of the hair has doubtless been deter mined by some law of climate, or caprice on the part of a ruler either in fashion or politics — the two being in this country generally combined.
" The islands of the Pacific are remarkably alike, both as regards size and general appearance ; and as Oceanica is to the leeward of Japan, and the resem blance between their respective populations has occurred
8o LETTER FROM COL. B. KENNON ON
to every sailor who has been in the two countries, it is a very rational conclusion that these places have been settled from the mainland by mariners blown out of their course. Such mishaps occur every two or three years at the present day, and such have occurred for hundreds, and it may b.e for thousands, of years. The ancient and confirmed habit of both Japanese and Chinese, of taking women to sea with them, or of traders keeping their families on board, would fully account for the population of these islands, even if they had been originally deserts. We have only to suppose the same impulses and causes acting in the more easily-travelled eastern direction, along the Aleutian chain, in seas abounding with fish and easily navigable, to conjecture whether such adventurers, voluntary or involuntary, ever reached America from Asia. The mere resemblance of immense numbers of North American Indians to the so-called Mon golian tribes is a sufficient answer to such a question. Respectfully and truly yours,
" BARCLAY
CHAPTER VIII.
REMARKS ON COLONEL KENNON's LETTER.
THE letter from Colonel Kenuon, and more particularly the argument for the settlement of Oceanica from Japan, are links in the chain of circumstantial evidence, showing that in all probability the inhabitants of Eastern Asia once passed to Western America. I myself have seen Sandwich Islanders of the best class, well-educated — occupying, in fact, the position of ladies and gentlemen — who were not to be distinguished by me from the same class of Japanese, only that the Sandwich Islanders seemed to be rather the better-looking. Some of the Pacific islands are even now uninhabited, which ren ders it the more probable that those which are no': derived their population from the country which lies, as Colonel Kennon remarks, " to the windward.'' Taking everything therefore into consideration, the scientific character of early Chinese and Japanese navi gation, the crowded state of the empires, which, despite stringent laws, continually compelled thousands to either live on the water, or seek a living by voyaging ; the islands thousands of miles away which were pro-
82 LETTER FROM COL. B. KENNON ON
bably peopled by them, and the great ease with which the journey by the Aleutian Islands could be accom plished, we have a chain of inductions which require only the least fact to establish the whole as truth. This fact is probably to be found in the record of the journey of Hoei-shin. All that now remains is the hope that, if curiosity and inquiry should be stimulated by the publication of what is here given, further re search may be made in China, or in its ancient records, for clearer evidence. I have heard it said that it is commonly related by the Chinese in California that their ancestors had preceded them by many centuries in that country, which tradition was once recorded in a San Francisco newspaper. This may have originated in some obscure version of the old story of Hoei-shin, but then it is not impossible that there are sources of information extant on this subject which were never known to Europeans.
As regards the discovery of America by the Norse men, while there is apparently good direct evidence to establish what is now (popularly, at least) regarded as a fact, the chain of general and presumptive evidence is not so strong as that which indicates the probable transit of Chinese or Japanese to Aliaska. It is true the Icelanders were dauntless seamen and reckless adventurers, and that the passage to Greenland pre sented no great difficulty to them. But all these conditions existed equally as regards seamanship, and to a much higher degree as to the ease of the journey,
NAVIGATION OF NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN. 83
for Japanese or their neighbours. Scandinavia and Iceland were never at any time more than thinly popu lated ; but the teeming millions of Eastern Asia have in all ages been proverbial. It is certainly true that one fact is worth all the presumptive evidence which can be imagined ; and it is equally true that the least fact is entitled to peculiar consideration and respect when heralded and supported on every side by probabilities. "\Ihere is a class of very unscientific writers on many subjects, but especially on Ethnology, who affect a negative method in everything, and ridicule every new thing as belonging rather to the realm of fairy tales than to science. With these writers nothing was ever derived from a strange source, or could have come from anything of which they were ignorant. This tendency is not inspired by truth, but by that timidity rather than prudence which dreads failure or ridicule, and contents itself with theorising and ar ranging in the track of bolder minds and true dis coverers. Opposition to or belief in what they regard as "religion," has also much to do with this spirit of denial, since many, and indeed far too many writers, are guided in every department of science by a desire to prove or disprove Christianity, rather than to find out what is true. To them all the extraordinary coin cidences of serpent-worship, monolithic groups, cups, winged globes, or crosses in monuments, are merely phenomena of an accidental nature, and the most natural things in the world, such as must have occurred to
84 LETTER FROM COL. B. KENNON ON
everybody. In philology they are identical with that very large class of unthinking and generally uneducated people who deem it useless to seek for the origin of cant words or popular phrases, so convinced are they that such " catches" come spontaneously to people's lips. " Everybody uses them, so they must have come of themselves to everybody," said a man of this class once to me. " A man can't help saying them." Now, as much research in this field has convinced me that every popular saying has a decided origin, popular belief to the contrary, it seems most probable that such very positive matters as religions and myths, which are difficult to learn, are, with the customs which they involve, more generally transmitted, however remotely, than easily invented. A snake is a singular object, and its motion on the ground is very much like the winding course of a great river, and the island or islands so generally found in the delta of a river naturally suggest something held in the mouth of the snake; and yet I do not think that the idea of a serpent with a ball at its mouth is so very palpable a religious symbol, and one so innate, that it should be the very first thing which would occur as an emblem of the great deity of the waters, to aboriginal Egyptians, to monolith-setters in Brittany, to mound-builders in Ohio, to Peruvians and Mexicans. In fact, I deem it not altogether impossible that this poetical collocation of the serpent as a type of a river, and the ball, simple and self-suggesting as it is, has never occurred to many of my readers. It would
NAVIGATION OF NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN. 85
be preposterous to deny what Sir John Lubbock has all but proved in " The Origin of Civilisation," that many methods of worship have occurred independently and spontaneously to savage races widely remote one from the other. Yet, on the other hand, few impartial inves tigators will deny that transmission has also been a wonderful element in what Germans call culture.
If Buddhist priests were really the first men who, within the scope of written history and authentic annals, went from the Old World to the New, the fact is of great value in itself, and one which must doubtless lead the way to much important knowledge as to all the early settlement or culture of Old America. And if it be a fact, it will sooner or later be proved. Nothing can escape History that belongs to it. Within a gene ration Egypt and Assyria have yielded the greatest secrets of their language and life to patient inquiry ; every week at present sees the most wonderful conquests, from the dreamy realm of myth and fable to that of material record and fact. I do not know how or when it will be, but I am persuaded that ancient America will in time yield her Moabite stones and Rosetta slabs to the patient inquirer. The records of Mexico were carefully destroyed by wicked bigots, who, not satisfied with exterminating a flourishing and happy nation, sought to commit a double murder by killing its past life. But it will be found again ; for science will yet achieve that, and more.
CHAPTER IX.
TRAVELS OF OTHER BUDDHIST PRIESTS (FROM THE FOURTH TO THE EIGHTH CENTURY).
PERHAPS the strongest link in the chain of circumstan tial evidence which can be adduced to prove that Hoei- shin and others penetrated to California and Mexico, is one which has been almost neglected by Professor Neumann, so lightly does he touch upon it. I refer to the
zeal with which/Buddhist monks wandered for centuries t- -
forth from China, through regions so remote, and among perils of so trying a nature, that the journey of Hoei- shin and of his predecessors seems, when we study the route, and allow that they probably travelled in summer, comparatively a pleasure-trip, i The result of these missionary enterprises was fortunately a large collection of published "Voyages and Travels," several of which are still extant. Of late years the interesting nature of these works has caused the translation of several of the more important into European languages ; and of these I propose to make some slight mention, supposing that a little account of such writings would be accept able, as bearing on the character of the first discoverers
LETTER FROM COL. B. KENNON, ETC. 87
of America. For, little as we have of the record of Hoei-shin, its general resemblance to that of the other Buddhist missionary travellers is so striking, that no one can fail to detect a marked family likeness.
Chief in the work of translation from these journals is the celebrated Chinese scholar Stanislas Julien, whose versions of Buddhist travels into French fill over 1500 octavo pages. From these works it is evident that it was a special matter of pride among those missionaries to excel their predecessors in the extent of their journeys, and in the zeal or success with which they distributed the doctrines and sacred images of Buddha. References to these sacred images abound in Bud dhistic works, indicating that immense numbers must have been carried to all places where the missionaries penetrated. One of these works of pious adventure is the very interesting " History of the Life of Hiouen- thsang, and of his Travels in India, from the year 629 to 645. Followed by documents and geographical explanations, drawn from the original narrative. Trans lated by Stanislas Julien, Member of the Institute of France, &c. Paris, 1853."
" From the fourth century of the Christian era to the tenth," says Julien, " the Chinese pilgrims who went into the countries west of China, and particularly into India, to study the doctrine of Buddha, and bring back the books containing it, have published a great number of narratives, itineraries and descriptions, more or less
83 LETTER FROM COL. B. KENNON ON
extended, of the countries which they visited
Unfortunately the greater part have perished, unless they remain buried in some obscure convent in China." Thus we cannot sufficiently regret the loss of " The Description of Western Countries," by Chi-tao'-an,1 a Chinese Shaman, who became a monk in 316, and con sequently preceded Fa-Lien, who did not go forth until the year 339 of our era. But the loss most to be regretted is, unquestionably, " The Description of Western Countries, in Sixty Volumes, with Forty Books of Pictures and Maps," which, edited in accordance with an Imperial decree, by many official writers, after the memoirs of the most distinguished religious and secular authors, appeared in the year 666, with an introduc tion written by the Emperor Kao-thsang, the cost being defrayed by Government. This work was entitled, in the original Chinese, Si-yu-tchi-lou-chi-kouen, Hoa- thou-sse-chi-kiouen (" A Description of the Western Countries, in Sixty Books, with Forty Books of Illus trations and Maps," as above). M. Stanislas Julien was apparently not aware that a copy of this work was kept in the Royal Palace at Pekin, as any book written, though only in part, by an Emperor, would naturally be, in accordance with Chinese custom. It was, how ever, unfortunately burned in the " looting " of the Summer Palace, in which perished such masses of valu-
1 Clu-tao'-an-si-yu-tchi. Vide the Cyclopaedia Youen-kien-louai-han, published in 710, bk. cccxvi. p. 10; and the life of this priest in Ching- seng-tch'ouen; bk. ii. p. 1.
NAVIGATION OF NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN. 89
able historical and literary material, never to be re covered. This work has been called a description of the Chinese Empire, but from the exact account of it which has been published, it was evidently the one spoken of by Julien. In fact, a carefully-detailed de scription of the Chinese Empire in the seventh century, fully illustrated, must have been in great part quite the same as " A Journey to the West," and it is not likely that two works of such magnitude, and on almost • the same subject, were published contemporaneously at such enormous expense as they must have involved. " It would be worthwhile," Julien continues, " for the Catholic missionaries who live near Nankin to seek for this work in the valuable library of that city, where my friend, the late Mr Eobert Thorn, former British Consul, discovered, and persuaded me to copy, ten years ago, 232 volumes in quarto, of texts and commentaries, which for centuries were to be found no longer in any other Chinese library. At present there are only six works of this kind — i.e., Buddhist travels — in the original text, and duplicates of these are to be found in France and Russia. Their names and dates are as follows : —
I. Memoir of the Kingdoms of Buddha. Edited by Fa-hien, a Chinese monk, who left the Kingdom of the West in the year 399 of our era, and visited thirty kingdoms.
II. Memoir of Hoei-seng and of Song-yun, envoys to
90 LETTER FROM COL. B. KENNON ON
India in 518, by order of the Empress, to seek for sacred books and relics.
III. Memoirs of Western Countries. Edited in the year 648 by Hiouen-thsaug. This work was written originally " in the language of India. It embraces a description of one hundred and thirty-eight kingdoms ; although, according to a Chinese authority, Hiouen- thsang had only been in one hundred and ten." The extraordinary number of countries visited by this mis sionary, and his manifest desire to make his travels appear as extended as possible, give a strong colour of probability to the assertion that these monks went wherever they could, and explored the remotest regions, deterred by no dangers. Since they brought the religion of Buddha to distant places in Siberia, as the curious black Buddhistic books from that country now in St Petersburg prove, and to Karnts- chatka and the Aleutian Islands, nothing is more probable than that such zealous propagandists should have gone a step beyond, and have arrived in a part of the North American Continent where reports of Aztec or other civilisation must have lured them still farther on.
IY. History of the Master of the Law of the Three Collections of the Convent of Grand Benevolence. This work, the first editing of which was by Hoei-li, continued and edited by Yen-thsang, both contem poraries of Hiouen-thsang, contains the history of his remarkable journey, accompanied by very interesting biographical details wanting in the original narrative.
NAVIGATION OF NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN. 91
V. The History and the Journeys of Fifty-six Monks of the Dynasty of Thang, who went to the West of China to seek the Law.
VI. The Itinerary of the Travels of Khi-nie.
It is worth noting that the authenticity of the great work of Hiouen-thsang, which has been impugned by one or two European writers, has been triumphantly vindicated by M. Julien. And there can be no doubt, that in every instance these journeys were carried out to the end proposed, and that the books are dona fide narratives. They are as authentic as the accounts of modern Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, or other missionaries. It is true that, like Hoei-shin or Hero dotus, these monks often narrate extravagant miracles and marvels as they heard them ; and it maybe that they lend too ready a faith to them — as did Sir John Man- deville, and most early travellers. But where they said they had been, they had gone. This is apparent enough. And there is no reason for rejecting the story of Hoei-shin, any more than that of his contem poraries, because he narrates hearsay wonders.
Another very interesting work of this school, which will be found more readily accessible to my readers than the somewhat rare and costly translations of M. Julien, is " The Travels of Fah-hian, from 400 to 415 A.D.," and "The Mission of Sung-yun." Both of these were Buddhist pilgrims from China to India, and their two books, rendered into English by Samuel Beal,
92 LETTER FROM COL, B. KENNON ON
have been published in one volume by N. Triibner, 57 Ludgate Hill, London. Of the character of these works, something may be inferred from the motto taken from the life of Gaudama, by the Eight Rev. P. Bigandet, Vicar- Apostolic of Ava and Pegu, who declares, "It is not a little surprising that we should have to acknow ledge the fact that the voyages of two Chinese tra vellers, undertaken in the fifth and seventh centuries of our era, have done more to elucidate the history and geography of Buddhism in India than all that has hitherto been found in the Sanscrit and Pali books of India and the neighbouring countries." This is very strong testimony as to the general accuracy of observation and truthfulness of the Chinese Buddhist travelling monks, two of whom were probably contem porary with Hoei-shin, and these he may have seen at the court of the Empress Dowager Tai-Hau of the Great Wei dynasty, who favoured such mission aries, sending them afar to advance the faith. It is far from unlikely that men so celebrated for the extent of their travels, and occupied with precisely the same pursuits, should have met and exchanged their experiences. For Hoei-seng and Song-yun, who travelled only nineteen years after Hoei-shin, were, as we know, celebrated in their time, their journal having been published by command of an Empress. Therefore it is improbable that Hoei-shin was less cele brated in his time at a court and in a country where travellers and books of travel were, as we have seen,
NAVIGATION OF NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN. 93
duly appreciated, since an Emperor deigned to write the introduction with his own Imperial hand to the book of one Buddhist missionary monk, and then had it published in the most magnificent manner at his own expense. We may well call a. work magnificent, the fame of which has endured for fourteen hundred years, and must the more deeply regret its wanton destruction by ignorant and reckless soldiers.
The credibility or importance of one of this class of books is naturally enough upheld by that of the rest, and the narrative of Hoei-shin, viewed in this light, acquires additional probability. It is to be regretted that Professor Neumann should have omitted as un important, or as detrimental to the authenticity of his text, that " fabulous matter " which, he assumes, is not worth translating. Absurd fables occur abundantly in the travels of Hoei-shin's contemporaries, as in those of Herodotus ; but being merely given as reports, their very existence may serve to establish an identity • of style with that of writers whom no one at the present day regards as untruthful. The study of these Bud dhist travels will convince the reader that their authors were singularly alike in their caste of mind and manner of observation, but unquestionably honest. They are as simple as Saxon monks, whom they greatly resemble : all their thoughts and phrases are distinct units.
It may be observed that Colonel Kennon's last re mark in his letter is in reference to the " resemblance of immense numbers of North American Indians to the
94 LETTER FROM COL. B. KENNON ON
so-called Mongolian tribes." This resemblance lias often been remarked by Americans. I was recently indebted to the kindness of the Hon. Charles D. Poston, late Commissioner of the United States of America in Asia, for a work written by him entitled, " The Parsees," which includes observations in India, Japan, and China. In this book, the only comparison made as to similarity of races is the following, in an incident which took place " beyond the Great Wall : "•
" A Mongolian came riding up on a little black pony, followed by a servant on a camel, rocking like a windmill. He stopped a moment to exchange panto mimic salutations. He was full of electricity, and alive with motion ; the blood was warm in his veins, and the fire was bright in his eye. I could have sworn that he was an Apache ; every action, motion, and look re minded me of my old enemies and neighbours in Ari zona. They are the true descendants of the nomadic Tartars of Asia, and preserve every instinct of the race. He shook hands friendlily but timidly, keeping all the time in motion like an Apache."
I have italicised these last words, since they indicate great familiarity with the Apaches, as well as the shrewd observation which is characteristic of the writer. All Indians do not closely approach this type, nor do all Tartars. But it is not to be doubted that among the " Horse- Indians " great numbers have a peculiarly Mongolian expression, often approaching to identity, as if there were a common blood, which, when developed
NAVIGATION OF NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN. 95
in nomadic life on Asiatic steppes and Western Ameri can prairies, had produced cognate results. This resem blance is so strong, that most readers will be tempted to inquire if there are any signs of philological affinity connecting these races. What I have been able to ascertain, which is also due to the researches of one whom I have known personally for many years, will be found in the following chapter.
AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES,
WITH THEIR
RELATIONS TO THE OLD WORLD.
THE DAKOTA LANGUAGE AND THE URAL-ALTAIC TONGUES— THE MOUND-BUILDERS— IMAGES OF BUDDHA.
CHAPTER X.
AFFINITIES OF AMERICAN AND ASIATIC LANGUAGES.
A VAST amount of research and ingenuity has been employed in establishing resemblances between the archaeological remains of Mexico and those of Central America- and Peru, and the temptation to transfer many of the assumed proofs or arguments to these pages is naturally very great. I have, however, resisted it, partly because this material is accessible to all who are interested in the subject of the possible origin of the American races, and partly because so much of it is unscientific and fanciful, that a degree of dis credit rests upon it. Many remarkable facts exist ; but in truth, they exist thus far, like the record of Hoei-shin, rather as an incentive to further research than as clearly-defined historical monuments. A remark recently made by Mr Hyde Clarke, when officiating as chairman at a meeting of the Society of Arts,1 has, however, suggested to me some investigations by a learned German, well known to me personally, which I shall not scruple to reproduce, as they are
1 April 15, 1874. Vide Journal of the Society of Arts, April 17, 1874. It was in commenting on a lecture on the " Symbolism of Oriental Ornament," delivered by William Simson, F.R.G.S., that the remark in question was made.
ioo AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, WITH THEIR
appropriate to the subject of an affinity between Old America and Asia. On this occasion Mr Clarke said that the*" subject was so vast, it was impossible to deal thoroughly 'with it ; but he might mention, that only recently some of the monuments in the Indo-Chinese Peninsula — in Cambodia and Pegu — had been found by himself to greatly resemble in form those of Mexico and South America ; and, at the same time, strong affinities were discovered between the languages. He had just discovered, also, that there was affinity between the Akkad form of the earliest cuneiform inscriptions (which remained even now almost without interpretation) and the Aymara, in Peru, thus establishing one historic chain from ( Babylon to the New World.'1 New facts were constantly coming forward, and they all tended to illustrate the same interesting and important doctrine — the unity which there had always been in the human race, and the way in which progress had been carried onwards from one generation to another, for the build ing up of a system of civilisation which, when properly applied, would contribute to the benefit of all."
It was the reference by Mr Clarke to the resemblance between American and Asiatic languages which reminded me of some comments by the distinguished linguist F. L. 0. Koehrig, who, as the discoverer of a group of
1 As I have not examined this subject, I know nothing of these affinities. I quote Mr Clarke's remarks on account of their general bearing on Ameri can languages, and as an introduction to another writer. The existence of ancient inscriptions in Peru is, I believe, as yet doubtful.
RELATIONS TO THE OLD WORLD. 101
new tongues in Central Asia, and as the author of an " Essay on Languages/' to which was awarded the prize of the French Institute, is entitled to respect, the more so as his views are quite free from anything visionary or fanciful. In a monograph " On the Language of the Dakota or Sioux Indians," published in 1872 at Wash ington, "from the Report of the Smithsonian Institu tion," he speaks as follows : —
" So far as we know, the Dakota language, with several cognate tongues, constitutes a separate class or family among American-Indian languages. But the question at present is, Whence does the Dakota, with its related American tongues, come ? From what trunk or parent stock is it derived ? Ethno logists are wont to point us to Asia as the most probable source of the prehistorical immigration from the Old World. ' Hence,' they say, ' many, if not all, of our Indians must have come from Eastern or Middle Asia ; and in considering their respective tongues, one must still find somewhere in that region some cognate, though perhaps very remotely-related, set of languages, however much the affinity existing between the Indian tongues and these may have gradually become obscured, and in how many instances soever, through a succession of ages, the old family features may have been impaired. But they further allow, of course, that these changes may have taken place to such an extent that this affinity cannot be easily recognised, and may be much, even altogether, obliterated.
"When we consider the languages of the great Asiatic Con tinent, of its upper and eastern portions more particularly, with a view of discovering any remaining trace, however faint, of analogy with, or similarity to, the Dakota tongue, what do we find ? Very little ; and the only group of Asiatic languages in which we could possibly fancy we perceived any kind of dim and vague resemblance, an occasional analogy, or other perhaps
102 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, WITH THEIR
merely casual coincidence with the Sioux or Dakota tongue, would probably be the so-called ( Ural-Altaic' family. This group embraces a very wide range, and is found scattered in manifold ramifications through parts of Eastern, Northern, and Middle Asia, extending in some of its more remote branches even to the heart of Europe, where the Hungarian and the numerous tongues of the far-spread Finnish tribes offer still the same characteristics, and an unmistakable impress of the old Ural-Altaic relationship.
" In the following pages we shall present some isolated glimpses of such resemblances, analogies, &c., with the Sioux language as strike us, though we need not repeat that no con clusions whatever can be drawn from them regarding any affinity, ever so remote, between the Ural-Altaic languages and the Da kota tongue. This much, however, may perhaps be admitted from what we have to say, that at least an Asiatic origin of the Sioux or Dakota nation and their language may not be altogether an impossibility.
" In the first place, we find that as in those Ural-Altaic lan guages, so in a like manner in the Sioux or Dakota tongue, there exists that remarkable syntactical structure of sentences which we might call a constant inversion of the mode and order in which ive are accustomed to think. Thus, more or less, the people who speak those languages would begin sentences or periods where we end ours, so that our thoughts would really appear in their minds as inverted.
" Those Asiatic languages have, moreover, no prepositions, but only Compositions. So, likewise, has the Dakota tongue.
" The polysynthetic arrangement which prevails throughout the majority of the American -Indian languages is less prominent, and decidedly less intricate, in the Dakota tongue than in those of the other tribes of this continent. But it may be safely asserted that the above-mentioned languages of Asia also con tain, at least, a similar polysynthetic tendency, though merely in an incipient state, a rudimental or partially-developed form.
RELATIONS TO THE OLD WORLD. 103
Thus, for instance, all the various modifications which the fun damental meaning of a verb has to undergo, such as passive condition, causation, reflexive action, mutuality, and the like, are embodied in the verb itself by means of interposition, or a sort of intercalation of certain characteristic syllables between the root and the grammatical endings of such a verb, whereby a long-continued and united series, or catenation, is often obtained, forming, apparently, one huge word. However, to elucidate this further here would evidently lead us too far away from our pre sent subject and purpose. We only add that postpositions, pronouns, as well as the interrogative particle, &c., are also commonly blended into one with the nouns, by being inserted one after the other, where several such expressions occur in the manner alluded to, the whole being closed by the grammatical terminations, so as often to form words of considerable length.1 May we not feel authorised to infer from this some sort of approach, in however feeble a degree, of those Asiatic languages — through this principle of catenation — to the general polysyn- thetic system of the American tongues ?
" We now proceed to a singular phenomenon, which we should like to describe technically, as a sort of reduplicatio intensitiva. It exists in the Mongolian and Turco-Tartar branches of the Ural-Altaic group, and some vestiges of it we found, to our great surprise, also in the language of our Sioux Indians.2
" This reduplication is, in the above-mentioned Asiatic lan guages, applied particularly to adjectives denoting colour and external qualities, and it is just the same in the Dakota lan guage. It consists in prefixing to any given word its first syllable in the shape of a reduplication, this syllable thus occur ring twice — often adding to it (as the case may be) a p. &c.
" The object — at least in the Asiatic languages alluded to- —
1 Such intercalations are, in a measure, almost analogous to the usual insertion of the many incidental clauses in long Latin or German sen tences, if we are allowed that comparison.
2 This reduplicatio intensitiva is not uncommon iu Hindustani. — C. G. L.
104 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, WITH THEIR
is to express thereby in many cases a higher degree or increase of the quality. An example or two will make it clear. Thus we have, for instance, in Mongolian, Mara, which means black ; and KHAp-Mara, with the meaning of very black, entirely black ; tsayan, white, TSAp-tsagan, entirely white, &c. ; and in the Turkish and the so-called Tartar (Tatar) dialects of Asiatic Russia, kara, black, and KA.p-kara, very black; sary, yellow, and SAp-sary, entirely yellow, &c.
" Now in Dakota we find sapa, black, and with the reduplica tion sAp-sopa. The reduplication here is, indeed, a reduplication of the syllable sa, and not of sap, the word being a-a-pa, and not sap-a. The p in SA.p-sapa is inserted after the reduplication of the first syllable, just as we have seen in the above, kara and KAp-kara, &c.
" In the Ural-Altaic languages m also is sometimes inserted after the first syllable ; for instance, in the Turkish leyaz, white, and VEmrbeyaz, very white, &c. If we find, however, similar instances in the Dakota language, such as 6epa, which means fleshy (one of the external qualities to which this rule applies), and C"EM tepa, <fcc., we must consider that the letter m is in such cases merely a contraction, and replaces, moreover, another labial letter (p) followed by a vowel, particularly a. Thus, for in stance, 6om is a contraction for 6opa, gam for gapa, ham for hapa, skem for skepa, om for opa, torn for topa, &c. So is 6em, in our example, only an abridged form of cepa ; hence m stands here for p or pa, and belongs essentially to the word itself, while in those Asiatic languages the m is added to the reduplication of the first syllable, like the KAp in p-kara, &c. We have there fore to be very careful in our conclusions.
" The simple doubling of the first syllable is also of frequent occurrence in Dakota ; for instance, yi, brown, and gigi (same meaning); Sni, cold, and snisni; ko, quick, and koko, <fec.
" There are also some very interesting examples to be found in the Dakota language which strikingly remind us of a remark able peculiarity frequently met with in the Asiatic languages
RELATIONS TO THE OLD WORLD. 105
above adverted to. It consists in the antagonism in form, as well as in meaning, of certain words, according to the nature of their vowels '; so that when such words contain what we may call the strong, full, or hard vowels — viz., a, o, or u (in the Con tinental pronunciation) — they generally denote strength, the male sex, affirmation, distance, &c. ; while the same words with the weak or soft vowels, e, i, the consonantal skeleton, frame, or , groundwork of the word remaining the same — express weak- i ness, the female sex, negation, proximity, and a whole series of corresponding ideas.
" A few examples will demonstrate this. Thus, for instance, the idea of father is expressed in Mantchoo (one of the Ural- Altaic languages) by ama, while mother is erne. This gives, no doubt, but a very incomplete idea of that peculiarity, but it will perhaps be sufficient to explain in a measure what we found analogous in the Dakota language. Instances of the kind are certainly of rare occurrence in the latter, and we will content ourselves with giving here only a very few examples, in which the above difference of signification is seen to exist, though the significance of the respective vowels seems to be just the reverse, which would in nowise invalidate the truth of the preceding statement, since the same inconsistent alteration or anomaly frequently takes place also in the family of Ural-Altaic languages.
" Thus we find in the Dakota or Sioux language, hEpa^j, second son of a family, and hApa?j, second daughter of a family ; c"i»j, elder brother; c"u?j, elder sister ; ci^ksi, son ; cu?/ksi, daughter, &c. Also, the demonstratives KOTJ, that, and KI?J, this, the (the defi nite articles), seem to come, in some respects, under this head.
" To investigate the grammatical structure of languages from a comparative point of view, is, however, but one part of the work of the philologist ; the other equally essential part consists in the study of the words themselves, the very material of which lan guages are made. We do not as yet intend to touch on the question of Dakota words and their possible affinities, but reserve all that pertains to comparative etymology for some other time
106 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, WITH THEIR
The identity of words in different languages, or simply their affinity, may be either immediately recognised, or rendered evi dent by a regular process of philological reasoning, especially when such words appear, as it were, disguised, in consequence of certain alterations, due to time and to various vicissitudes, whereby either the original vowels or the consonants, or both, have be- ^corne changed. Then, also, it frequently happens that one and the same word, when compared in cognate languages, may ap pear as different parts of speech, so that in one of them it may exist as a noun, and in another only as a verb, &c. Moreover, the same word may have become gradually modified in its original meaning, so that it denotes, for instance, in one of the cognate languages, the genus, and in another, merely the species of the same thing or idea. Or it may also happen that when several synonymous expressions originally existed in what we may call a mother language, they have become so scattered in their descent, that only one of these words is found in a cer tain one of the derived languages, while others again belong to other cognate tongues, or even their dialects, exclusively.
" The foregoing is sufficient to account for the frequent failures in establishing the relationship of certain languages in regard to the affinity of all their words. On this occasion it will be enough to mention in passing, as it were, one or two of the most frequently-used words, such as the names of father and mother. In regard to these familiar expressions, we again find a surprising coincidence between the tongues of Upper Asia — or, more ex tensively viewed, the Ural-Altaic or Tartar-Finnish stock of languages — and the Dakota.
"Father is in Dakota ate; in Turco-Tartar, ata ; Mongolian and its branches, etsti, etsige ; in the Finnish languages we meet with the forms attje, aid, &c. — they all having at = et as their radical syllable.1 Now as to mother, it is in the Dakota
1 This also exists in Old German, atti or c.tti being still used in Sualda for father.— C. G. L.
RELATIONS TO THE OLD WORLD. 107
language ma ; and in the Asiatic tongues just mentioned it is ana, aniya, ine, eniye, &c.
" Again, we find in the Dakota or Sioux language tartin, which means to appear, to be visible, manifest, distinct, clear. Now we have also in all the Tartar dialects tan, tang, which means first light ; hence dawn of the morning.1 From it is derived tani, which is the stem or radical part of verbs, meaning to render manifest, to make known, to know ; it also appears in the old Tartar verb stems, tang-(la) meaning to understand ; and in its mutilated modern (and Western) form, any- (la], with out the initial t, which has the same signification. We may mention still mama, which, in Dakota, denotes the female breast. We might compare it with the Tartar meme, which has the same meaning, if we had not also in almost all European languages the word mamma (mama) with the wry same fundamental signification, the children of very many ditferent nations calling their mothers instinctively, as it were, by that name, mamma, mama.*
" We may also assert that even in the foundation of words we find now and then some slight analogy between certain characteristic endings in the languages of Upper Asia and the Dakota tongue. Thus, for instance, the termination for the nomen agens, which in the Dakota language is sa, is in Tartar tsi, si, and dchi ; Mongolian, tchi, &c. We also find in Dakota the postposition ta (a constituent part of ekto, in, at), which is a locative particle, and corresponds in form to the postpositions ta and da, and their several varieties and modifica tions in the greater part of the Ural-Altaic family of languages.
1 Din (day) Hindu ; Saxon, dagian ; English, dawn. — C. G. L.
2 e.g., Mamma, a breast or pap, Latin, having also the meaning of "a child's word for mother." Ma, or mamma, occurs in seven African lan guages ; ma or amma in nine non- Aryan languages of Europe and Asia ; ama once in North Australia ; hammali in Lewis Murray Island ; mam ma once in Australia ; and amama among the Hudson's Bay Esquimaux. Vide Sir J. Lubbock's " Origin of Civilisation." — C. G. L.
io8 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, WITH THEIR
The same remark applies in a measure to the Dakota postposi tion e, which means to, toward, &c. By means of such post positions the declension of nouns is effected in the Ural-Altaic languages. The Dakota cases of declension, if we can use this term, amount likewise to a very rude sort of agglutination, or rather simple adding of the postpositions to the nouns.1 There can be here no question of a real inflection or declension, since there is throughout only a kind of loose adhesion, and nowhere what we might call a true cohesion. The postpositions are in the written language added to the nouns, without being conjoined to them in writing (except the plural ending pi), as is also the case in the Mongolian language, the Turco-Tartar dialects, and other tongues of this class.
"In pointing out these various resemblances of the Sioux language to Asiatic tongues we in nowise mean to say that we are inclined to believe in any affinity or remote relationship among them. At this early stage of our researches it would be wholly preposterous to make any assertions as to the question of affinity, &c. All that we intended to do was simply to bring forward a few facts, from which, if they should be further cor roborated by a more frequent recurrence of the phenomena here touched upon, the reader might perhaps draw his own con clusions, at least so far as a very remote Asiatic origin of the Dakota language is concerned. Further investigations in the same direction might possibly lead to more satisfactory results.'7
I am confident that few readers will object to the length of this citation, or to its character, since it cer tainly illustrates forcibly, in several respects, the present condition of all our conjectures, or knowledge, if I may so call it, of the early relations between America and Asia. There is enough in it, as in the narrative of
1 Declension by means of postpositions also occurs in the Gipsy or Korn- uiauy language. — C. G. L.
RELATIONS TO THE OLD WORLD. 109
Hoei-shin, to amply warrant research, and to encourage labour in the direction pointed out ; but it would be in the highest degree rash and arrogant to assume, on no better grounds than the two present, that America was settled by the Mongolian race. Indeed, I cannot too warmly commend Mr Roehrig's extreme caution in ad vancing his observations. Nevertheless, I think that they indicate a most decided possibility of an Eastern origin ; and with regard to Hoei-shin, I believe there is good ground for probability. And in all such cases, one discovery strengthens the other.
CHAPTER XL
THE MOUND-BUILDERS AND MEXICANS.
THERE is as yet great confusion in our knowledge of the different races of ancient America. For, admitting thai, the Sioux language, or any North American Indian lan guage, presents traces of Asiatic derivation, this would simply prove that the Sioux came from Asia. But if would not explain the origin of the Aztec race, nor would it cast the least light on the nature of the Mound- Builders, or tell us who or what the people were whom Hoei-shin found, possibly in Mexico. With regard to these early races, some observations by an American writer may not be deemed out of place r1 —
" Centuries before the Red Indian appeared on the Northern Continent, a race (perhaps of a kindred stock) of higher civilisa tion dwelt on the western prairies. The ' Mound-Builders/ as they are appropriately called, left their remarkable lines of earth works from the Lower Mississippi to the Ohio. These structures, on which successive forests of various growths have flourished and died, still survive, and surprise the stranger by their intri cacy, skill, and the evidences of vast labour which they display.
1 Ne\v York Times.
AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES. 1 1 1
Some are temples, some burial-places, some are fortifications, some are gardens, some are representations on a gigantic scale of the forms of animals and birds, for what purpose it is difficult to explain. Among these structures are mounds in the form of truncated pyramids, which seem to be the first suggestions of the pyramidal and terraced structures in Central America and Mexico, which, perhaps, formed the highest material works of this mysterious race. They must have conducted an inland commerce over a vast territory, and obtained or purchased mica from the North Carolina mountains, copper from Lake Superior, obsidian from Mexico, specular iron from Missouri, and salt from Michigan — articles which the Red Indians never possessed, except by accident. They understood a rude agriculture, and the arts of weaving and of moulding pottery and figures of animals. They even at times melted copper, and used it in instruments, though they never seem to have done this with iron. The forms of their skulls, and the evidences from their arts, show a milder and more cultivated race than any the whites have ever known north of Central America. Who they were, whence they came, of what blood or stock, is hidden in the mists of a far antiquity. They spread their busy life, and left their traces over the whole Central West, perhaps existing there as long as the Anglo-Saxon race has existed, and then they perished — their only history being written on the ground, a record obliterated by the growth of forests for uncounted centuries, but now partly deciphered by a people of whom they never dreamt. Before even the Mound- Builders, lived a lower and more primeval race, the companions, in all probability, of the fossil animals, a race whose skulls are just being discovered near Chicago, and whose contemporaries have left their stone implements beneath the volcanic deposits of the Sierras. This prehistoric and primeval man belonged to tribes as low and degraded as the present Australians ; indeed, of a type more nearly approaching the simian than any hitherto discovered (with the single exception of that of the * Neander thal' skull.)"
ii2 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, WITH THEIR
The extinction of such a vast and widely-spread race as was that of the Mound-Builders, in all probability by the fierce and powerful Eed Indian, indicates an im mense extent of time. For as by no possibility could any mere migrations from Asia have sufficed to sweep them away, it follows that their exterminators must have long been growing in numbers before they could effectually put an end to them. The writer from whom I have quoted remarks, probably with truth, that the Mound-Builders were a milder and gentler race than their successors, and far more intellectual, as is shown by their skulls. The thoroughness with which this numerous and widely-spread people were extermin ated, and the fact that no tradition of them has ever been found among the Red Indians, indicate a very remote age as the period of their disappearance. And yet it is quite certain that if, as Hoei-shin asserts, the mild and highly-refined religion of Buddha ever took root among early Americans, it must have been with such people as the Mound-Builders who practised some vast and dreamy Nature-worship, which would render them peculiarly susceptible to the teachings of the monks. For that they did practise some such religion would appear from this, that since works like theirs were in every other part of the world invariably erected under the influence of belief, it is very unlikely that they formed structures many miles in length, employ ing probably the labour of millions, for mere amusement. It must have been either among such a race, or by
RELATIONS TO THE OLD WORLD. 113
highly- civilised Aztecs, that the monks were welcomed. But it is most unlikely that Buddhism ever made any mark upon the Aztec monarchy itself, or upon the fierce Tolteks. Had it done so, we should find its traces -to this day. There is a wonderful leaven in Buddhism ; it penetrates deeply wherever it goes ; it changes strong and energetic faiths ; it even blended intimately with the vigorous Greek element in Northern India.
Meanwhile antiquarians are constantly collecting new facts, which indicate a mysterious knowledge by the Mexicans of many phenomena of the so-called Old World. Even while writing, I learn that Senor Jose Ostiz de Tapia has now in New York a museum of Mexican antiquities, which is said to be by far the most important ever yet made. This gentleman, who has been for many years investigating the arch aeology of Central America, has collected many thou sand objects. One of these is a remarkable stone image, said, according to Indian tradition, to be that of Cucumaz, the God of the Air. "It is cut from a block of chocolate-coloured porphyry, is about two feet high, and about eighteen inches in diameter. The shape is that of a feathered serpent in a solid coil, from whose widely-distended mouth the head of a woman emerges, her arms and legs appearing between the coils. This is supposed to represent the creation of woman. The type of her face bears no likeness to that of any race which ever lived in Mexico, but much resembles
H
U4 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, WITH THEIR
the sculptured faces found in Egyptian ruins. Another singular curiosity, that also appears to connect the New with the Old World in prehistoric times, is an image cut from a black stone in the likeness of a negro. Not only are the features of the true Ethiopian type, but the shape of the head and the conformation of the figure. Both these small statues are admirably carved and finished, although their worshippers were certainly ignorant of the use of iron."
So were the ancient Egyptians ; but, like the Mexi cans, they had copper, which the latter, as it has been proved, brought from Lake Superior; and the Egyptians made bronze as hard as iron, an art but recently rediscovered. Yet all such testimony requires thoroughly scientific treatment. The day has gone by when loose hearsay evidence and wild conjecture passed current for very fair archaeology or ethnology. The man who cannot absolutely prove a fact beyond all suspicion of forgery, exaggeration, and chance coin cidence, must be satisfied to offer his conjectures very modestly, and merely with the hope that they will attract the attention of others who may deem the hint thus given of sufficient importance to develop by further investigation. Discoveries like those of the Spanish archa3ologist may be multiplied ad infinitum. But they prove nothing beyond an antecedent proba bility. And as I have kept this strictly in mind through every sentence of this work, having specially selected the illustration by Mr Roehrig on the affinities
RELATIONS TO THE OLD WORLD. 115
of the languages in preference to others, on account of its cautious spirit, I trust that I may not be accused of positively believing that the " discovery " of America by Buddhist monks is an established fact.
It is, however, more than merely probable that we shall yet make very important discoveries as to the Mound-Builders of America. An immense stock of their remains are still buried, and, in the present rudimentary state of the arch geology of prehistoric man, little has been done — very little — with the mate rial which has been gathered. The following brief notice from the Saturday Review of a recent work on the subject, sums up in reality nearly all that is known of the mysterious race which once covered such an immense extent of American soil with works strikingly like those of the Old World :—
"No one," says the reviewer, " will long remain in uncer tainty whether the Mound-Builders were or were not the ances tors of the tribes who succeeded them in their possession. Ths author of ' Prehistoric Eaces' J is in no such perplexity; nor do we think that any one who compares the two "will long remain in uncertainty. The vast size of the mound-works, their enor mous number, and their elaborate formation, imply conditions wholly unlike those described in the volume already noticed. They imply not a thin population of free hunters and warriors, obtaining a fairly comfortable but uncertain sustenance by the chase and fishing and a scanty agriculture, but a vast nation,
1 Prehistoric Races of the United States of America, by Y. AY. Foster, LL.D., author of the " Physical Geography of the Mississippi Valley," &c. Chicago : Griggs & Co. ; London : Trubner & Co., 1873.— Saturday Review, Aug. 30, 1874.
n6 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, WITH THEIR
well fed by the labour of a portion only of its available numbers, and therefore able to spend immense toil on such constructions ; governed, probably, by powerful princes able to dispose of the exertions of their people at their pleasure ; and, if Dr Foster is right, an extensive empire under a single rule, able to rely on the frontier defences for the security of the interior. We have lately noticed other works on this subject, and it will therefore suffice to state in this place that Dr Foster's book is one of the best and clearest accounts we have seen of those grand monu ments of a forgotten race, and to note its peculiar merits. The most important of these is the distinct judgment expressed on the purpose of these works. They may be divided into three classes : the animal mounds, or imitations of animal forms, in rude b«at gigantic earthworks, chiefly to be found in Wisconsin, to which it is difficult to assign any object, except one of religion or commemoration ; those which, square or round in shape, appear to have been intended as the foundations of temple obser vatories for the worship of the heavenly bodies, or of dwellings (often crowded together in such numbers that we can hardly assign any but the latter purpose), and yet not entrenched ; and those works which are distinctly entrenchments, often containing mounds of the second class. It is possible, we suppose, that the mounds of the second class may have been separately stockaded, and in that case they would have been easily defensible ; but where several are found near together with no entrenchments connecting them, it is difficult to think that defence was their primary purpose. On the other hand, the earthworks which enclose great spaces of land generally appear, by their form and location, to have been fortifications; and Dr Foster observes that they rarely appear in the centre of the region occupied by these monuments, but rather on its northern border, where the empire would be chiefly exposed to the incursions of warlike enemies. To the question, what has become of the builders, the author replies by citing traditions of the earlier and more civi lised possessors of Mexico, which indicate that they once occu-
RELATIONS TO THE OLD WORLD. 117
pied a much more northerly settlement, and were driven thence by conquering enemies. The absence of any relics of stone buildings on the mounds, compared with the grand stone ruins of Mexico, forms an obstacle to the identification of the earlier Mexicans with the Mound-Builders ; but it is barely possible that a people who built entirely with wood in an alluvial country might learn to erect vast buildings of stone in one of a different character. And a long period may have elapsed between the ejection of the Mound-Builders and the Aztec conquest of Mexico — a period sufficient to account for great changes in the habits of the emigrant race. For we know, at least, that two succes sive forest growths have covered many of the mounds since they were abandoned, each of which must have occupied centuries, and may have occupied almost any length of time. The Indians appear to have had no tradition of the Mound-Builders, no story of their conquest, no legend even to account for the existence of the mounds. ' Our fathers found them here when they came ' is surely not the sole reminiscence of a great war, and of the con quest of a civilised people and a fortified empire, that would linger among the children of the conquerors. Such an answer seems to imply either the interposition of a second race and a second extermination, or an enormous lapse of time, sufficient to extinguish the very memory of such a history as always lingers longest in the minds of a warlike race — a history, too, of which the monuments were always under their eyes."
Assuming these deductions as representing the state of our knowledge of the Mound -Builders, it would seem more probable that they preceded the present inhabitants in Western America by hundreds, or even thousands, of years, than that they were known to the Buddhist priests whom we suppose may have visited their land. It is possible — though it is as yet anything but capable of demonstration — that the civilised races of
1 1 8 AMERICAN ANTIQ UITIES.
old New Mexico, as we still see them represented in the Pueblos, were descended from the Mound- Builders, and that their ancestors were exterminated or driven to the south by a rude, fierce, semi-Mon gol race, which, derived from Asia, gradually changed its characteristics with climate and intermixture, until it became the present Red Indian. For it is very certain that thousands of American Indians, parti cularly those of short stature, or of the dwarfish tribes, bear a most extraordinary likeness to Mongols. A closer study of the Indians remaining in New Mexico would throw light on this question. Meanwhile, it may be temporarily assumed that, as nearly every point in Hoei-shin's narrative seems to agree more or less with something known of the Mexican, Peruvian, or New Mexican history or legends, it was not with the old Mound-Builders that the monks came in contact.
CHAPTEE XII.
IMAGES OF BUDDHA.
THE reader may recall that in the record of Hoei-shin he speaks particularly of the images of Buddha, in con nection with the holy writings and religion of that great reformer, as having been taken to America in the year 458 by his five predecessors. I mention this, that in case any other inquirer may investigate this subject, he may pay particular attention to the discovery of such images, or to possible imitations of them, in America, and among its monuments. For to present the sacred likeness of Buddha to the eyes of the world was held to be of itself almost enough to convert unbelievers. To say that these images were made by millions would be no exaggeration. When, in the year 955, the Emperor She-tsung placed severe restrictions on the Buddhist religion, more than 30,000 temples were de stroyed, and a mint was established for the purpose of converting such of the images, &c., as were made of precious metals, copper or bronze, into money. Again, in the persecution of 845, " the copper images and bells were melted down and made into cash." It is
1 2 o A ME RICA N A NTIQ UITIES, I VITII THEIR
then probable, that wherever anything could be carried these compactly-formed images were taken.
Professor Neumann speaks of Buddhist emissaries having penetrated to Europe. It is not unlikely, and I am reminded of it by the fact that I was very recently shown a Buddhistic image found in digging for the St Pancras Railway above Midland Yard, about the month of December 1872. It was discovered at a depth of fifteen feet, nine feet of which consisted of loose soil or debris of a recent character, but the remaining six feet were hard, solid earth. The character of the latter, and comparisons with similar excavations, judged by the ages of coins found, indicate a probability that the image may have been left where it was discovered 1000 years ago, or more. I regret that it was impos sible for me to obtain this relic for some national museum or other institution, and also that it had been broken, by being ignorantly used as a child's toy, though it was quite perfect when first discovered. The man who dug it up spoke of fragments of similar images having been found ; but owing to his ignorance, nothing whatever can be inferred as to whether they were Buddhistic or not.
Images resembling the ordinary Buddha have been found in Mexico and Central America, but they cannot be proved to be identical with it. Their attitude is an extremely natural one for any man not encum bered with tight nether garments to assume in a warm, climate ; indeed, it is the ordinary sitting position of
RELATIONS TO THE OLD WORLD. 121
all men who are not accustomed to chairs. At a grand ball given by the Khedive at Cairo, in 1873, I saw several native gentlemen, after sitting down on chairs, forgetfully draw their feet up under them, and sit in precisely the manner of Buddha.
THE ADVOCATES AND OPPONENTS
OF THE
NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
DEGUIGNES, KLAPROTH, AND D'EICHTHAL.
CHAPTER XIII.
DEGUIGNES, KLAPROTH, AND D'EICHTHAL.
THE reader has probably inferred, from the allusions to Deguignes in Professor Neumann's work, that the Chinese discovery of Fusang is no novelty to the world of science. More than a century ago that sagacious and sensible savant discussed in the " Mernoires de 1' Academic des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres" (vol. xxviii., 1~61)? " Les Navigations des Chinois du cote de 1'Amerique, et sur plusieurs Peuples situes a 1'extremite de 1'Asie Orientale," and endeavoured to confirm the memoir by Hoei-shin. The Chinese scholar Klaproth attempted to refute Deguignes, but employed arguments which, a more recent writer, D'Eichthal, with the aid of far more extended and accurate infor mation, has in turn refuted. It is true, Deguignes was no more able to absolutely prove that Hoei- shin and his predecessors were in California, than we are at the present day. But he did his best, by adducing such testimony as he could collect ; and we have at least the satisfaction of knowing that something has been added to it, and that more may
126 THE ADVOCATES AND OPPONENTS OF
be contributed, until at last the work shall be com pleted.
A thorough history of the question would have made it proper to begin with Deguignes, or rather with Kampfer (bk. i. c. iv.), who speaks so positively of the great Eastern Continent beyond Kamts- chatka, discovered by the Japanese. But as the trans lation by Neumann from the Chinese original is more complete, and as he has succinctly set forth the whole question as it was in his time, I judged it best to give preference to the translation of his work, and then add the letter of Colonel Ken n OH, which refers directly to so many statements made by Neumann — a course which will not seem out of place to those who will bear in mind that Colonel Kennou, who has accurately surveyed and mapped every mile of the North Pacific, and every acre of its shores on either side, is therefore as practically familiar with the possibilities of the route as any man can be. The importance of his testimony at the present day, and the advanced state of our geographical knowledge, will appear to those who will consult the curious Japanese map brought to Europe by Kampfer, and given by'liim to Hans Sloane, representing the North Pacific ; or the almost as erroneous chart of the same by Philippe Buache, which is given with a facsimile of the former in Deguignes' Memoir (" Memoires de Lit. et de FAcademie Roy ale des Inscriptions et Belles Let- tres," vol. xxviii., 1761). Having done this, I propose
THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIX. 127
to present in a condensed form an examination of the whole subject as it appeared in 1864 to M. Gustave d'Eichthal, a scholar well known for his learning and enthusiasm in Greek literature and other subjects. But before passing to the work of M. G. d'Eichthal, I shall touch on a few points in the excellent article by Deguignes, which should not be neglected. He himself regarded the facts which he had collected as authentic, and not as mere conjectures, like those indulged in by Grotius, Deliiet, and others, rela tive to the early settlement of America — of which latter I may observe, that the reader who is de sirous to know what they are, can find them all appropriately set forth and commented on in living's " Knickerbocker History of New York," a most fitting receptacle for theories which by their absurdity have become the legitimate property of the humorist. Deguignes attempted honestly and modestly to adhere to observation and probability, and the result is that his ideas have been, in part at least, confirmed, and the arguments of his opponents proved unsound.
His first step was to show that Li-yen, a Chinese historian who lived at the beginning of the seventh century, speaks of a country named Fou-sang (Busang) which was more than 40,000 li east of the eastern shore of China. To reach it, " one must depart from the province of Lea^-tong, north of Pekin, and that after travelling 12,000 li, the traveller would reach Japan ; and thence to the north, after a journey of 7000 liy
128 THE ADVOCATES AND OPPONENTS OF
arrive at the country of Yen-chin " (Wen-schin, the Painted People). " Five thousand li from this country, towards the east, is Ta-han, which is 20,000 li from Fou-sang." As Deguignes remarked, " Of- all these, we only know the Leao-tong, the northern province of China, whence vessels sailed ; and Japan, which was the principal station for Chinese vessels. The three other points on the journey are the Ven-chin country, Ta-han, and Fou-sang. I hope to show that the first is Jeso, the second Kamtschatka, and the third a place about California."
The next step was naturally enough to determine what was the length of a li in China in the fifth cen tury. But this was difficult ; for, as Deguignes remarks, " Although at the present day 250 li make a degree, they have varied in the past, not only under different dynasties, but in different provinces. Father Gaubil, who made deep researches in Chinese astronomy, did not venture to decide this measure. He tells us that the greater portion of the literati under the reign of Han maintained that a thousand li, drawn from south to north, made a difference of an inch of shadow at noon on a dial of eight feet. Those who succeeded them thought that this measurement was in correct, since they judged according to the standard of the li in vogue in their own time. But if we cast our eyes on the li adopted by the astronomers of the dynasty of Learn, who flourished at the beginning of the sixth century (" Observations Astronomiques du Pere Gaubil,"
THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN. 129
vol. ii.), we shall find a considerable difference, since their 250 li from north to south give in like manner an inch in difference But uncer tainty may in this case be avoided by observing that from Leao-tong to the island of Toni-ma-tao is fixed as a distance of 7000 li, and, in accordance with the li thus established, the 12,000 li from Leao-tong to Japan end in the centre of the island, about Mea-co, its capital."
Deguignes determined, with great intelligence, that the country of the Wen-schin, 7000 li north-west of Japan, must be Jeso, from the exact agreement of the accounts given of that country by Chinese historians of the early part of the sixth century (Goei-chi and Ven- hien-tum-hao, A.D. 510-515) with that of Dutch navi gators in 1643 (" Ambassade des Hollandois an Japon," vol. i. p. 10 ; " Recueil des Voyages au Nord," vol. iii. p. 44). Both describe the extraordinary appearance of the natives, and speak of the abundance of a peculiar mineral resembling quicksilver. " Five thousand li from this country, to the east, lies Tahan. The manners of the people here were like those of Wen-schin, but they spoke a different language."
I trust that it will be specially observed by those who think the journey from China to Aliaska im probable, on account of the dreariness of the country and its great discomfort, that the old travellers cited by Deguignes speak of the Chinese navigators as habitually passing through many Tartar tribes,
130 THE ADVOCATES AND OPPONENTS OF
crossing the Great Desert of Chamo, passing over the ice of a great lake in the country of Ko-li-han, and, north of it, through a chain of mountains, where the nights in summer were so short that one could hardly roast a leg (or breast) of mutton between sunset and sunrise. But the degree to which the dreariness of a country will deter a traveller must depend upon the traveller himself. Colonel Kennon, in his letter, speaks of the years which he passed in a little pilot- boat, on probably the very route traversed by Hoei-shin, as the happiest of his life; while, as to the land, Lieu tenant Cochran, who in 1823 had the hardihood to go on foot from St Petersburg to Kamtschatka, found the latter country delightful, and speaks with pleasure of the entertainments there. It is true that he there wooed and won a wife, an incident of all others most likely to convey sunshine into what all writers agree is the fog giest country in the world. It is, however, to be as sumed, that Hoei-shin and his predecessors went by sea —no impossible thing, at a time when in China both astronomy and navigation were sciences in a high sense of the word. Deguignes, speaking of the winds and currents, as Colonel Kennon does, says that the Chinese, in order to avoid the shores, " took the wind from the; north of Japan, and in the Sea of Jeso sailed to the east ; but at the Strait of Uries the current bore them rapidly to the north." Therefore they entered the Strait of Uries, beyond which they found many islands, which extend to the most northern point of Kamtschatka,
THE NARRATIVE OF HO El- SHIN. 131
and where also terminate the 5000 li between Jeso and Tahan. The account of the different people inhabiting the North of Asia on the route to America, as given by Deguignes from several old Chinese historians, is far more detailed than that in Neumann. From this and other circumstances, I infer that Professor Neumann, though he cites Deguignes, had read his work with but little care. Deguignes apologises for his long and detailed account of these tribes, their manner of life and habits ; but to the interested reader this will appear to be one of the strongest links in the chain of evidence, since no one on perusing it can doubt that the Chinese were perfectly familiar with the entire northern country to the very edge of America, and had been so for many generations. Deguignes does not appear to have re flected that the naif and manifestly truthful accounts of all these different tribes by old historians strengthen his arguments, since he tells us that he has omitted most of them. It is worth noting that he cites from Yen-hien-tum-kao and Tam-chu that " the Chinese travellers who intended to visit Tahan took their de parture from a city north of the river Hoam-ho,1 towards the country of the Ortous 2 Tartars. This town, then called by the Chinese Tckung-cheou-kiang-tching, must be the one now known as Piljo-tai-hotuu." This men tion of the route as that which was usually followed indicates that there was in those days much travel in that direction ; and we find a reason for it when we
1 Hoang-hoin. 9 Ordos or Hotas.
132 THE ADVOCATES AND OPPONENTS OF
learn that at an earlier period the chain of islands from Asia to America was incredibly rich in furs, and that at a time when furs were in extraordinary demand in Europe and the East, a demand which lasted until the fifteenth century. We are told, for instance, that the principal charge brought against a Turkish sultan of that time, when his subjects rose in rebellion, was that he had spent millions in purchasing sables, this fur being sup posed to be possessed of virtues as an aphrodisiac. To secure this luxury any sum was given ; and it is said that, so far back as the fifth century, the Che-goei tribes, who lived on the north banks of the Amur, were principally occupied in fishing and in hunting sables. This fur-hunt ing extended over the Aleutian Islands, which, as D'Eich- thal remarks (Revue Archaologique, 1862, vol. ii. p. 197), were inhabited before their conquest by the Russians (1760-1790) by a numerous and prosperous population. " As we leave the North," says Maury (Revue des Deux Mondes, April 1858), " the facilities of crossing by short voyages increase, and the natives seem to find more and more attraction in them. With nothing but a leafy branch for a sail, the boat-load, consisting generally of a man, his wife and children, dashes out seawards as soon as a favourable wind blows, and proceeds at a fast rate." The Russians have long had establishments on the islands of St Paul and St George, whence they send vast quantities of furs ; and Colonel Kennon has frequently, while conversing with me, spoken of the beautiful quality of many which he saw, but which he
THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN.
133
was unable either to purchase or accept as a gift, owing to a special request from the Eussian Government that he would not take one away. Whatever he needed for food or stores was supplied with great generosity, but no furs could be touched. I have called special atten tion to the furs of this region, since, as they were once much more abundant there than at present, and that at a time when it was more the fashion to wear them, we have a satisfactory reason to account for the Chinese having at one time been familiar with the island route to America, and for their having gradually abandoned it. I am not aware that any special stress has been laid on this as evidence, but to my mind it fully accounts for the tone of the old writers cited by Deguignes, who appear to speak of going to America, not as if it were a legendary exploit, which had once or twice been achieved in the early dawn of history, but rather as a common incident.
Tam-chu states that it is fifteen days' travel from the Che-goei, or sable-hunters of the Northern Amur to the east, where are found the Yu-tche, a race derived from the Che-goei ; and that a further journey of fifteen days brought the traveller to Tahan. But, he adds, people also reached Tahau by sea, sailing from Jeso. After careful examination, Deguignes deter mined that the only country 20,000 li east of China, to which the name and conditions of Fusang could pos sibly be applicable, must be California or New Mexico.
" The Chinese historians add to the account of Hoei-
134 THE ADVOCATES AND OPPONENTS OF
shin that of a Kingdom of Women, which is 1000 li farther east." It has been ingeniously suggested by M. D'Eichthal, that as the term women was formerly applied to entire tribes in North America, the monk may have heard something of them. Thus the Dela- wares, having given up their arms to the Six Nations, and become proteges of the latter, were formally en titled women, and accepted the name at a grand con gress of the tribes. As for the absurdities connected with this legend of the women, as given by Hoei-shin, it is sufficient to say that he uses the term "it is said " in reference to the statement that the children of this woman-realm appear matured at the age of three years. Had he pretended to have visited the country, he would not have given as a matter of hearsay what he must certainly have observed. And as he was also told that these women suckled their babes from the backs of their heads, Deguignes, with his usual sagacity, re marks, " It is easy to see by this narrative that the women fed their children par dessus leurs epaules — over their shoulders — as is done in many places in India." The following, from the historians Nan-su and Ven-hien-tum-kao, is not without interest, as showing that from an early age Chinese vessels were driven by storms to America: — " In the year 507 (A.D.), under the dynasty of Learn, a Chinese vessel sailing in these seas was blown by a tempest on an unknown island. The women resembled those of China, but the men had faces and voices like dogs. These people ate small
THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIN. 135
beans, wore dresses made of a kind of cloth, and the walls of their houses were built of earth, raised in a circle. The Chinese could not understand them." If we make allowance for the dogs' faces on the well- known ground that the Chinese are particularly given to applying the word dog to all people whom they re gard as savages, it will be found that the description applies with marvellous exactness to those New Mexican Indians who held a middle place between such highly- cultivated people as the Pueblos and the wilder and ruder tribes. The resemblance of the women to those of China is a matter of common remark ; and one of my own earliest observations, as a boy, was the extraordinary likeness of Afong-Moy, a Chinese woman who visited America many years ago, to an ordinary squaw. This likeness is always, however, more striking in half-breed Indian women, and in those of light complexion, and the Pueblos are very much lighter than other Indians.1 The enormous consumption of beans (frijoles), the cloth (which was very beauti- • fully made by the Pueblo- Aztecs, from early ages), and especially the circular walls of earth, all identify these Indians with those of New Mexico.2 These people, as well as the Indians of Louisiana (Chevalier de Tonti,
1 Captain H. C. Leonard, who has resided for twenty-five years among the Chinooks, and who is familiar with all the North-western tribes, fully con firms this statement relative to the general resemblance of their squaws to Chinese women.
2 For an account of their dwellings, vide Johnson's "Cyclopaedia," X.Y., 1874.
136 THE ADVOCATES AND OPPONENTS OF
u Voyage au Nord "), had a curious habit of howling and roaring terribly to express respect and admiration, and this may account for the voices like dogs spoken of by the Chinese.
De(mignes has collected some curious instances from
O O
old writers which seem' to prove that Chinese merchants frequently found their way to Western America. Thus George Home1 (1. 6, c. 5), relates that beyond the tribes which dwelt west of the Hurons, there came in great vessels strangers who were beardless. Fr. Yasquez de Coronado states that he found at Quivir vessels with gilded poops ; and Pedro Melendez, in Acosta, speaks of the wrecks of Chinese vessels seen on the coast, " And it is beyond question that foreign merchants, clothed in silk, formerly came among the Catacualcans." All these reports intimate that the Chinese once traded in Northern California, about the country of the Quivir. And there is, moreover, ground for asserting that, at one time certainly, the most civilised tribes in North America were those nearest China. It is generally assumed that the intelligent and almost refined Pueblos of New Mexico are the de scendants of Aztecs who fled to the north after the Spanish invasion ; but the traditions of the Aztecs themselves declare that they came from the north, and it is probable that the Pueblos have always been where they are. Delae't (bk. vi. c. xvi. and xxil) says that near New Mexico were people who dwell in houses
1 Vide Delaet, bk. vi.
THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SHIX. 137
several stories high, with halls, chambers, and stoves. They wore skins and cotton cloths, but, what is unusual among savages, had leather shoes and boots. Every district had its public criers, who announced the king's orders, and idols and temples were everywhere. Baron de la Hontan ("Memoires sur 1'Amerique") speaks of the Mirambecs, who inhabited walled towns near a great Salt Lake. These people made cloths, copper hatchets, and other wares.
Charlevoix (" Histoire de la Nouvelle France ") narrates two incidents, which, though almost incredible, are at least worthy of consideration. One of these is that Father Grellon, after acting as missionary for some time in Canada, went to China, and thence to Tartary, where he met a Huron woman whom he had formerly known in Eastern America. Another Jesuit, returning from China, also declared that a Spanish woman, originally of Florida, was found by him in Tartary, to which country she had come by an ex tremely cold northern route.
It is said that the walrus and seal hunters of the mouth of the river Kocoima, in Siberia, are often carried out to sea on vast floating fields of ice, and occasion ally drift to the opposite American shore, which is not far distant. Most of my readers will recall the wonderful preservation of the crew of the Polaris, which, with women and children, drifted for many months on an ice-cake. Indeed, many wild animals, also like men engaged in hunting, may in this way
138 THE ADVOCATES AND OPPONENTS OF
have been transported from one continent to the other.
These are substantially the points advanced by De guignes,1 an excellent Chinese scholar, and a careful writer. It was while making researches for a history of the Mongols that he found in the works of old Chinese historians the materials for his theory that America was peopled from the North- west. In 1831 Julius Heinrich von Klaproth, a distinguished scholar, attacked Deguignes in a work entitled " Recherches sur le Pays de Fou-sang mentionne dans les Livres Chinois, et pris mal a propos pour une partie de 1'Amerique " (" Nouvelles Annales des Voyages," t. xxi. cle la deuxieme serie, 1831). By this work, according to Gustave d'Eichthal, Klaproth did much harm. There was an authority attached to his name which made it easy for him to render ridiculous the ideas advanced by Deguignes. There is a popular tendency — especially in France — to ridicule everything Chinese; and in England the mere idea of Chinese metaphysics awakens a smile in the readers of Dickens, though scholars know that Chinese Buddhists may be fairly said to have exhausted every refinement of thought known to d priori or pantheistic methods. In ninty-nine cases out of a hundred, the sneering critic who negatives has it all his own way with the public for a time, and for more than the present time he does not care. The
i Histoire Generale des Huns, des Turcs, des Mongoles, et des autres Tartares Occidentaux, Paris, 1756-58, 4 vols., par Joseph Deguigues.
THE NARRATIVE OF HOEI-SH1X. 139
refutation of Klaproth now appears worthless ; he produces nothing new, and attacks Degmgnes entirely " out of himself." He begins with a plausible quibble, by accusing Deguignes of being false to his title. " In the Chinese original," says Klaproth, " which Deguignes had before his eyes, there is nothing said of the navi gation undertaken by the Chinese to the land of Fusang; but, as may be seen further on, it turns upon a notice of Fusang as given by a Buddhist priest who had been there." Klaproth says " a native of the country," and by the country he means Fusang. But in a German version of the same passage, given by Neumann in a more recent work (" Ost-Asien uud West- America, Zeitschrift fiir allgemeine Erdkunde," April 1864), the (or this) country refers to China. Now Deguignes really wrote, according to his title, on the navigation or voyages of Chinese to America, and he says very little of the record of Hoei-shin, beyond quoting it.- Deguignes tells us nothing of a Chinese original in his title, he only adduces the narrative as confirming his other researches ; and Klaproth appears fully convicted of a shrewd, unscrupulous trick, such as a petty Bohemian might have recourse to in some notorious journal, whose ideal of criticism is to make a writer appear personally ridiculous. After this he makes a vigorous attack on Deguignes' estimate of the length of the Chinese li in the fifth century, which ends in nothing, since he thinks that the Chinese of that time had no means of estimating distances at