Chinese sailor’s grave at Sulu
Tokelau (Fonseca)
Diaries of Master Bentou (Zheng He’s navigator) (Kerson Huang)
Part V: Genetic fingerprints left by Zheng He’s fleets – the DNA evidence
The following is the author’s draft. It will be radically revised when experts’ views have been received.
We know from an accumulation of different strands of evidence (not least from the reports of the first Europeans to reach the New World) where the Chinese settled. It has been relatively easy to obtain DNA results from local peoples who live in these areas today. To date, the principal report relied upon is that of Professor Novick and his colleagues (Corina C. Novick, Juan Yunis, Emilio Yunis, Pamela Antunez de Mayolo, W. Douglas Scheer, Prescott L. Deininger, Mark Stoneking, Daniel S. York, Mark A. Batzer and Rene J. Herrera), ‘Polymorphic Alu Insertions and the Asian Origin of Native American Populations’. After studying twenty-four peoples of North and South America in locations in which Zheng He’s fleets settled, Professor Novick found that ‘close similarity between the Chinese and native Americans suggests recent gene flow from Asia’. This leaves a few gaps, i.e. places where the Chinese settled not covered by Professor Novick’s report, but again, it has been relatively easy to fill in these gaps with other DNA reports by distinguished geneticists, reports which also show close similarity between the Chinese and native people in all the areas in which the author claims the Chinese settled.
The author wishes to date as accurately as possible the ‘recent gene flow’ described by Professor Novick et al. It seems dating by mutation rate is far too controversial to say with any certainty that ‘recent’ means settlements arising from the 1421–3 voyages. Other methods must be found. It seems to the author that this can be achieved in stages: to show the DNA came as a result of seaborne voyages post Bering Straits flooding; to determine which seaborne voyage; and to adduce the corroborative evidence – i.e. wrecked junks containing coins of Zhu Di’s era but no later.
1. Seaborne voyages
Certain diseases or afflictions cannot survive in the extremely cold conditions of a frozen Bering Straits crossing, e.g. hookworm and roundworm, where the eggs need moisture and warmth to propagate. Linking hookworm and roundworm diseases found in the Indian people of the Mato Grosso area of Brazil with peoples who have ‘recent’ Chinese DNA (Novick et al) is thus evidence that the ‘recent’ DNA was brought by sea post Bering Straits thawing. The author thinks (but needs advice on this) that the following may provide corroborative evidence of seaborne DNA.
Hookworm/roundworm/A Duodenale Necator (Dr Olympio Fonseca)
Machado-Joseph disease (Jerry Warsing). This disease appears to have originated in the Yunnan province of SW China and spread along the sea routes of Zheng He’s fleets, viz. India, the Carolines (USA), the Azores, Brazil, San Francisco, Yemen and NW Australia.
Tokelau (Dr Olympio Fonseca). This highly distinctive infection was found in 1928 among native Indian people of the Mato Grosso area of Brazil. These people had lived isolated from Europeans for centuries. This endemic parasitic disease has such a unique appearance that ancient narrators and naturalists referred to it even if they were not medical experts. The centre of tokelau’s sphere of affliction is the Malayan peninsula. It is found on the southern coast of China in the Honnan province and the coasts and hinterland of Indochina (Cambodia, Thailand, Annam, Vietnam) to the Yunnan province of China, Burma and Bangladesh. It is prevalent across the Pacific: Formosa, Marianas, Moluccas, Gilbert and Marshall groups, New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga groups, Tokelau islands, Society and Celebes groups, Solomons and Loyalty Islands, Sumatra and New Guinea – all places visited by Chinese fleets. It is the author’s contention that the Chinese also sailed down the Amazon to the Mato Grosso.
Hanta virus (Dr Alan Leibowitz). Carried by rats and found among Indian peoples of the Rio Grande (west Texas and Mexico). The Zuni and Navajo peoples in the upper reaches of the Rio Grande have ‘recent’ Chinese DNA (Novick et al).
Smallpox (Jonathan F. Ormes and Chris Spedding). The Native American population was decimated by smallpox before most of them had ever seen a European. How was it brought to the Americas?
Paragorimus westermani – lung fluke (Dr John S. Marr). As with hookworm, roundworm, Machado-Joseph disease and tokelau, this is common in China and South America.
Herpes? (Sorenson and Raish S479, F119 & 120)
Polio? (Sorenson and Raish S479, F119 & 120)
Pertussi? (Sorenson and Raish S479, F119 & 120)
Hepatitis B? (Dr John S. Marr)
Pierre Noire (Sorenson and Raish L014, F119 & 120)
Typhus Murin (Sorenson and Raish L014, F119 & 120)
Tinea imbicata (Sorenson and Raish L014, F119 & 120)
Lice and nits/tick-borne diseases (Sorenson and Raish S479, F119 & 120)
2. To determine which seaborne voyage
Professor Novick et al report: ‘The results corroborate the Asian origin of native American populations but do not support the multiple-wave migration hypothesis supposedly responsible for the tripartite Eskaleut, Nadene and Amerind linguistic groups.’ The multiple-wave hypothesis refers to the waves across the Bering Straits. Table 1 of Professor Novick’s report shows the geographical distribution of the twenty-four studied Native American peoples; Figure 2 is a maximum likelihood tree showing (inter alia) the closeness of the studied peoples’ DNA to Chinese and to one another. Comparing the two reveals that Greenland natives, Alaska natives, Inca, Buctzozt Maya and Campeche Maya are all closer to Chinese DNA than to the DNA of the Indian peoples who surround them.
The Greenland natives and Alaska natives are 3,000 miles apart. If the ‘Chinese’ DNA was brought across the Bering Straits to Alaska by people who then marched across northern Canada to Greenland, one would expect the DNA of intervening peoples initially to resemble Alaskan DNA then gradually mutate. This is not the case. For the Greenland and Alaska natives’ DNA to be so strikingly similar, the implication must be that these peoples received ‘recent gene flow from Asia’ at about the same time. Alaska is on the Pacific coast, Greenland in the Atlantic. The only way the Greenland and Alaska people could have received the gene flow at about the same time is by ship, moreover by ships which sailed in the Pacific and the Atlantic. Because of the prevailing winds and tides these simultaneous voyages must have been conducted by different fleets.
The Greenland and Alaska natives and the Maya of the Yucatán Peninsula are thousands of miles apart.
Had the ‘recent gene flow’ from Asia been across the Bering Straits, one would expect intervening peoples between Alaska and the Yucatán to have DNA which gradually mutates from Alaska until Yucatán, and this gradual mutation should be reflected in intervening peoples. This is not the case. Buctzozt Maya DNA is so close to Chinese that the Buctzozt could almost be called Chinese. Mayan DNA is far closer to Alaskan DNA than it is to the Indian people who live along the route from Alaska to Yucatán (viz. Navajo). The Maya on the Atlantic coast and the Alaskans on the Pacific coast must have received their ‘recent gene flow from Asia’ at about the same time. Again, multiple fleets would be required.
The same argument can be applied to the Incas of Pacific South America, whose DNA is closer to the Chinese and Maya of the Atlantic coast and to the Aleuts of Alaska than it is to other Indian peoples of South America. In addition, Professor Novick reports that the ‘close similarity between the Chinese and native Americans’ covers people far distant from one another: Atlantic – High Arctic; Pacific – High Arctic; Amazonia – thousands of miles upriver; and Patagonia/Bolivia – again, thousands of miles upriver.
To reach these places thousands of miles apart in different hemispheres at about the same time, not only would different fleets be required, but huge fleets: the Atlantic fleet sailing to Greenland, the Yucatán, the Caribbean, the Amazon and Patagonia; the Pacific fleet from Alaska right down the coast to South America. The author contends that the only huge fleet
s which sailed to North and South America were those under the command of Admiral Zheng He, and that there is a wealth of supporting evidence summarised in this synopsis that Admiral Zheng He’s fleets visited each place where Professor Novick’s team has found DNA evidence of ‘recent gene flow from Asia’.
3. Chinese settlers from Zheng He’s voyages – DNA evidence
The Navajo Principal DNA report relied upon: Novick et al
Précis of the report’s findings: close similarity between the Chinese and Native Americans suggests recent gene flow from Asia
Corroboration or supporting DNA reports Professor Bryan Sykes, Seven Daughters of Eve, p.282
Study (1997) by US National Academy of Sciences – Navajo possess unique type of retrovirus gene JCV found only in China and Japan
Corroboration or supporting reports into ailments or diseases that suggest Chinese arrived by sea ‘Amerindian mitochondrial DNAs have rare Asian mutations at high frequencies suggesting they derived from four primary maternal lineages’, Schurr et al (see ‘papers referred to’ at end)
Did the first Europeans to reach the area in which the Navajo people live find Chinese already there? Yes. Francis Vasquez de Coronado (1510–1554) found Chinese people in Tiguex, home of the Navajo. He also found junks with gilded sterns.
Other evidence showing links with China The Navajo elders could, 70 years ago, converse in Chinese with missionaries from SW China. Many visitors to www.gavinmenzies.net have commented on the striking physical similarities between the Navajo and the Chinese.
Local legends telling of pre-Columbian visitors from the West. Certain linguistics. Accounts of European historians (Acosta, Grotius). Wrecks of probable junks – Sacramento and Coronado/Mafeo and Frois accounts. Europeans found Chinese plants (Cherokee rose, hibiscus (Rosa sinensis), rice, 26 chromosome cotton); Europeans found Chinese animals – hens (Melanotic silkie, Frizzle fowl), Chinese ship’s dogs (Acosta), carvings of horses. ‘Tiguex’ (name of Navajo) appeared on European maps before Europeans arrived there (Cantino 1502, Waldseemüller 1507). Antonio Galvão reports Chinese claims to be ‘Lords of Mexico’ pre-European voyages. Garcia reports Chinese merchants in ports of Quatulco and Panuco. Asiatic shipwrecks on coast (Hugo Grotius). Foreign ships carved by Indian people of Tiguex. Statuettes of Buddha – Grand Canyon, Granby Dam, Colorado.
see Synopsis of Evidence on www.gavinmenzies.net, paras 3, 6, 7, 8(a), 15, 16 and Annex XVIII
The Mazatec people of Mexico (Olmec culture) Principal DNA report relied upon: H.L.A. Genes and the Origins of the Amerindians, Dr Felipe Vilchis
Précis of the report’s findings: ‘The results of the phylogenetic analysis reported here support the idea that the autochthonous pueblos based in Meso-America and South America had common ancestors, with as many coming with the migratory wave from the north as those that took the transpacific route.’ Allelic distribution among the Mazatecs showed a garotypic pattern that was very similar to that found among Asian peoples.
Corroboration or supporting DNA reports: A. Arnaiz-Villena, J. Granados
Corroboration or supporting reports into ailments or diseases that suggest Chinese arrived by sea Hookworm and roundworm
Greenbeak, J. H. et al, The Settlement of the Americas
Vilchis et al, Clin Genet, 1997
Did the first Europeans to reach the area in which the Mazatec people live find Chinese already there? Yes – Acosta (people); Coronado (people and junks); Galvão (junks); Gregorio Garcia (people)
Other evidence showing links with China Pre-Columbian Chinese presence in Mexico – Chinese who came by sea – is overwhelming
see Synopsis of Evidence on www.gavinmenzies.net, paras 1 to 21 incl., Annexes XIX, XXVI and XXVII
Campeche and Buctzozt Maya Principal DNA report relied upon: Novick et al
Précis of the report’s findings: close similarity between the Chinese and Native Americans suggests recent gene flow from Asia
Corroboration or supporting DNA reports ‘Amerindian mitochondrial DNAs have rare Asian mutations at high frequencies …’, Schurr et al. Investigated Maya, Ticuna (South America) and Pima (North America).
Corroboration or supporting reports into ailments or diseases that suggest Chinese arrived by sea The astonishing finding by Novick et al that Mayan DNA is closer to Chinese DNA than Mayan DNA is to North, Central or South American DNA
Hookworm/roundworm diseases endemic to SE Asia and China
Did the first Europeans to reach the area in which the Campeche and Buctzozt peoples live find Chinese already there? Yes, Columbus (secret report)
Other evidence showing links with China Late Mayan art at Chichen Itza and Copan is Chinese art. Yucatán appears on world maps, viz. Cantino, Caverio, before Europeans arrived there. Jucutácato shroud shows foreign visitors on horseback, and dogs. Chinese figurines at Teotihuacan. Chinese body entombed, Teotihuacan. Chinese chickens, roses, hibiscus, rice, ship’s dogs found by first Europeans. Chinese lacquer technology used by Maya. Chinese jade medallions and earplugs. Chinese dyestuff technology used by Maya. Close physical similarity between Othomi, Maya and Chinese. Mayan glyphs in temples interspersed with Chinese and Phaspa (eunuch secret language).
see Synopsis of Evidence on www.gavinmenzies.net, paras 2–4, 6–11, 14–20, Annex XIX
Waunana and Ngobe peoples of Panama Principal DNA report relied upon: Novick et al
Précis of the report’s findings: close similarity between the Chinese and Native Americans suggests recent gene flow from Asia
Corroboration or supporting DNA reports Peoples of Venezuela, Surinam and Guyana, Dr Annabel Arends
Peoples of Venezuela, Arends and Gallengo
Corroboration or supporting reports into ailments or diseases that suggest Chinese arrived by sea Hookworm/roundworm
Did the first Europeans to reach the area in which the Waunana and Ngobe peoples live find Chinese already there? Yes, Columbus (secret report)
Other evidence showing links with China Chinese claims to have ruled over ‘locations in Central and South America’ before Europeans arrived (Antonio Galvão). Substantial evidence of Chinese settlements in Panama pre-Columbus.
see Synopsis of Evidence on www.gavinmenzies.net, paras 2, 3, 7–11, 20, Annexes XX, XXV, XXVI, XXVII
Inca peoples Principal DNA report relied upon: Novick et al
Précis of the report’s findings: close similarity between the Chinese and Native Americans suggests recent gene flow from Asia
Corroboration or supporting DNA reports DNA of ‘Juanita’ the ice maiden (Kyoto University) shows she has ‘Taiwanese’ DNA
Corroboration or supporting reports into ailments or diseases that suggest Chinese arrived by sea Hookworm/roundworm
Did the first Europeans to reach the area in which the Inca people live find Chinese already there? Yes, dead ones, and wrecked junks on Chilean coast (Grotius)
Garcilaso de la Vega (Chinese in Peru and Chile)
Other evidence showing links with China ‘Peru’ is a Chinese name; villagers of Eten and Monsefu understood Chinese until a century ago; nearly 100 Peruvian villages have Chinese names to this day. First (British) colonists saw wild elephants (Ecuador/Colombia border) brought by Chinese. Friar Antonio de la Calancha found pictures of Chinese cavalry. Chinese body found entombed at Trujillo (Calancha/Loayza). Peru shown on maps before Europeans arrived there – Waldseemüller 1507, Martellus 1489. Chinese chickens found the length of Peru. Coconuts and bananas (indigenous to SE Asia) found by first Europeans; 74 other plants carried to Australasia, etc. ‘Great wall of Chimu’ built by Chinese. Inca pottery with Chinese calligraphy. Folklore identical to Chinese, as are divination ceremonies.
see Synopsis of Evidence on www.gavinmenzies.net, paras 2–19 incl., Annex XXI
Indian peoples of Venezuela and Colombia: Irapa, Paraujano and Macoita Principal DNA report relied upon: Transferrins in Venezuelan Indians: High Frequency of a Slow-Moving Variant, Drs Arends and Gallengo
Pr�
�cis of the report’s findings: in 50 per cent of the Yupa Indians of Venezuela there is a slow-moving transferrin electrophonetically indistinguishable from Tf Dchi which to date has only been found in Chinese. This finding is additional evidence for the existence of a racial link between South American Indians and Chinese.
Corroboration or supporting DNA Reports Parker and Bearn
Novick et al report into Kobi, Chimilia and Wayuu peoples of Venezuela/Colombia
Corroboration or supporting reports into ailments or diseases that suggest Chinese arrived by sea Hookworm/roundworm
‘Amerindian mitrochondrial DNAs have rare Asian mutations at high frequencies’, Schurr et al
the work of Dr Annabel Arends
Did the first Europeans to reach the area in which the Irapa, Paraujano and Macoita peoples live find Chinese already there? Yes, Gonzalo Ximenez de Quesoa (Muyscas, Guanes and Calima peoples)
Other evidence showing links with China The combination of the work of Arends and Gallengo, Professor Novick and Parker and Bearn seems to make an overwhelming case that a Chinese colony existed in the foothills west of Maracaibo
1421: The Year China Discovered the World Page 45
