This book is a collective endeavor and could not have been completed without the help of hundreds of people. I am afraid these acknowledgments are likely to be incomplete: if anyone feels aggrieved at being omitted, please let us know. For more extensive acknowledgments, please visit our website.
I am grateful to the following people who conducted major independent research that they funded themselves and that lasted for more than two years:
Lam Yee Din
I had the good fortune to meet Mr. Yam Lee Din in Hong Kong in 2003. Mr. Lam has studied Zheng He maps in exhaustive detail and published his findings in four lengthy papers that are shown on our website. Mr. Lam is, in my opinion, the greatest living expert on Zheng He’s voyages. At my suggestion he was invited to deliver his findings to the Library of Congress, which he did on May 16, 2005. His speech was broadcast to China and Asia by Phoenix Television.
Tai Peng Wang
Tai Peng Wang is a historian and journalist based in Vancouver. His family is from Quanzhou, and he can read and speak the version of Mandarin used in his native province. This has been very important in the discussions on the authenticity of the 1418 map, which was created by a Quanzhou cartographer.
Tai Peng Wang has written and published five papers of the greatest importance, particularly his thirty-two-page paper entitled “Zheng He and His Envoys’ Visits to Cairo in 1414 and 1433.” This is not to imply that Tai Peng Wang agrees with all the statements I have made in this book.
Cedric Bell
Before visiting New Zealand in 2003, Cedric read 1421 and decided to do some research on the beaches of New Zealand’s South Island. He sent the results to a company then making a television documentary on 1421. Cedric had found some forty wrecks buried in sand or in cliffs and also the ruins of barracks that the shipwrecked survivors had built ashore and the remains of smelters built to refine ore. To confirm this, I retained well-known ground-penetrating radar and carbon-dating laboratories to check a wreck, a barracks, and a smelter. The results are on our website 1421, along with Cedric Bell’s research. They show conclusive evidence that Chinese people have been smelting iron in New Zealand for two thousand years. Cedric, in my view, because of his finds and subsequent analysis of wrecks coupled with his experience as a marine engineer, has become the leading authority on the construction of junks in Zheng He’s fleets.
Rosanne Hawarden and Dave Bell
Rosanne and Dave have followed through on Cedric Bell’s research in New Zealand, investing their own time for four years and without financial support from me. They have done the groundwork that has enabled us to put forward an alternative and less simplistic history of the settlement of New Zealand and the South Pacific—that the original settlers were the Chinese who brought others of South East Asian origin with them. The Polynesians, including the Maori, are their descendents. Rosanne and Dave’s work has been of very great importance in furthering 1421 evidence in New Zealand, Australia, and the islands of the South Pacific.
Liu Gang
Mr. Liu Gang, the founding partner of the second-largest law firm in China, has collected maps and works of art for several decades. Five years ago he found in a Shanghai bookstore “Zheng He’s 1418 Map of the World,” described in detail on our 1421 website. At the time, he knew little of Zheng He and filed the map as a curiosity. In 2005 Liu Gang purchased the Mandarin version of 1421 and realized he owned the first recognizable, accurate world map drawn up after Zheng He’s earlier voyages. Please refer to the 1421 website for more about this map and its authenticity.
Dave Cotner
In 1985 Dave Cotner, a retired U.S. Navy pilot, found the wreck of an old ship along the Oregon coast, buried in water beneath thirty feet of sand. The local museum curator classified the wreck as Chinese. When Dave contacted us, we commissioned a well-known firm, GPR Geophysical Services of Portland, Oregon, which conducted the ground-penetrating radar surveys of “Cotner 1” and confirmed in all respects Dave’s MAS survey of 1985—position, size, shape, depth, angle, and sitting. Core drilling started in November 2007. The wreck has unfortunately deteriorated into wood slurry. A few small wood chippings have been retrieved, and these will be dated and classified in early 2008. Dave has found a number of other buried wrecks in the area. Very substantial sums will be required to excavate them.
Dr. Gunnar Thompson
Dr. Thompson is an expert in pre-Columbian New World discovery, and his books and research on multicultural findings and early Asian voyages to the Americas have been invaluable to the development of 1434. In Secret Voyages, Thompson provides evidence that between 1277 and 1287 Kublai Khan, emperor of China, dispatched Marco Polo to the Americas, where he reached Hudson Bay. Dr. Thompson presented his findings at the Library of Congress on May 16, 2005. His research can be found at www.marcopolovoyages.com.
Dr. Siu-Leung Lee
Dr. Siu-Leung Lee was born and educated in Hong Kong, where he graduated from the Chinese University. He has a PhD from Purdue University, did postdoctoral research at Yale University, and became a professor of chemistry at Texas A&M University, pioneering in the enzyme biosynthesis of natural products.
Dr. Lee has set up a very popular website called Asiawind (www.asiawind.com). In collaboration with Ms. Fu Yiyao, Dr. Lee published a calligraphy book on Chinese wisdom. He is an internationally known expert on Chinese calligraphy.
Since 2002 Dr. Lee has been a reasoned critic of 1421. However in 2006 he acquired a medallion that had been found buried near Asheville, North Carolina. Dr. Lee believes this was part of the gifts intended by the Xuan De emperor for American chieftains through his representative. Having found a great deal of corroborative evidence, Dr. Lee now believes that during the Ming dynasty, the Chinese visited North Carolina. In June 2006, he presented his findings at the University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong History Museum, and the City University of Hong Kong. See Dr. Lee’s website for further details.
Paul Chiasson
Paul Chiasson is a fifty-five-year-old Canadian architect born on Cape Breton Island. Paul built up a successful practice with a distinguished list of clients. His specialty became Asian art and architecture.
There is a legend of the local Mi’kmaq people of Cape Breton Island that long ago foreigners came from the other side of the world and settled on a headland now called Cape Dauphin. Five years ago Paul decided to explore the colony where these strangers built their town. On climbing onto the plateau he found the remains of a stone town laid out on Buddhist lines overlooking the Ciboux Islands. Paul’s findings are now contained in his best-selling book, Island of the Seven Cities.
In 2005 Paul invited Cedric Bell and me to join him on a survey of the site in Cape Dauphin. In my view the site, while Buddhist, is not of Zheng He’s era but much older. Eventually I feel it will be shown to be from the voyages of Kublai Khan’s fleet.
Charlotte Harris Rees
Charlotte Harris Rees has researched extensively about the early arrival of Chinese to the Americas. As a child she lived in Taiwan then Hong Kong with her Baptist missionary parents Marjorie and Dr. Hendon M. Harris. Dr. Harris’s find of an ancient Asian map displaying the western coastline of the Americas led to his 1975 book The Asiatic Fathers of America: Chinese Discovery and Colonization of Ancient America. In 2006 Charlotte came out with an edited and abridged version of that book.
The oldest of the Hendon Harris Fusang Maps are Ming Dynasty. They are believed by some to date back to a 2200 B.C. Chinese map. The Harris Map Collection was at the Library of Congress from 2003 through 2006 while it was being studied. It was examined by Dr. Hwa-Wei Lee, chief of the Asian Division; Dr. John Hebert, chief of Geography and Maps Division; and by Professor Xiaocong Li, from Peking University, Beijing. At my request Charlotte presented her findings at a Library of Congress symposium in May 2005. She continues to write and speak. Her website is www.asiaticfathers.com.
Professor Robert Cribbs
Professor Robert Cribbs is an adjunct professor of engineering at California State University and a visiting professor of scientific archeology and music in Cairo, Egypt. He started, and runs, several corporations involved in medical and industrial ultrasound and high-speed video and radar processing. He also possesses the world’s third-largest collection of medieval astrolabes. In consequence he has become, in my opinion, one of the world’s leading authorities on the different methods used by ancient and medieval astronomers to determe latitude and longitude, the diminution of the ecliptic, the equations of time of the sun and moon, and the determination of longitude by the slip between sidereal and solar time or by the angular distance between moon, planets, and stars.
Professor Cribbs has explained these methods to me with such clarity that I have been able to explain them to others. Professor Cribbs presented his findings at a seminar on Zheng He held at the Library of Congress on May 16, 2005.
M. Benoit Larger and Dr. Albert Ronsin
M. Larger is a retired French banker living in Saint-Dié-des-Voges. He sponsored an exhibition held at Musée Pierre-Nöel between May and September 2007. The exhibition drew together the work of a group of savants including Martin Waldseemüller who had been recruited by Saint-Dié’s ruler, Duke René II, to produce a world map copied from separate maps received from Portugal. This exhibition, which prominently featured the work of Dr. Albert Ronsin, honorary conservator of the museum, was the collation of the lifetime’s research of many learned scholars into Martin Waldseemüller’s maps of 1507 and 1516 and globe of 1506. Their research has been adopted in this book. I am very grateful for it—it saved me a lifetime of research.
Dr. Tan Ta Sen
Dr. Tan Ta Sen is a leading Singapore businessman who is also president of the International Zheng He Society. This society collates knowledge relating to Zheng He’s voyages between 1403 and 1434. I have been invited to attend many of the society’s meetings and have in consequence learned a great deal from the experts. Dr. Tan introduced me to the foreign minister of Singapore, who suggested the 1421 exhibition subsequently held in 2005. Dr. Tan kindly lent several priceless works of art to this exhibition, financed the production of model junks of Zheng He’s fleet, arranged the loans of very valuable artifacts, and provided invaluable support in many other ways. The 1421 exhibition is now in Dr. Tan Ta Sen’s museum in Malacca in the former offices and warehouse of Admiral Zheng He.
Lynda Nutter
Lynda Nutter is a dancer and choreographer who understands Japanese, Chinese, and the Nyungah language of the aboriginal people who live in the Swan valley east of Perth in Western Australia. Five years ago Lynda found carved stones that form an astronomical observatory from which longitude may be calculated. These stones have inscriptions in a medieval Chinese script and are at the heart of the Nyungah territory. Lynda has correlated markings on Zheng He’s navigational chart with the coastline around Perth as a result of reading and translating the Chinese.
Cristopher Pollard
Christopher Pollard has spent a lifetime studying medieval Spain, notably the history of Extremadura. The final chapter of this book is an abridgment of my notes of Christopher’s lectures. For those who wish to explore the subject in more depth, Christopher runs Christopher Pollard’s Tours based in Taunton, England, and personally leads these tours through the magical cities of medieval Spain.
Libraries
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Owners of Waldseemüller’s 1507 and 1516 world maps. The Library of Congress kindly invited me and supporters of 1421 to a symposium on May 16, 2005, on the subject of Zheng He’s voyages. They were roundly abused for doing so by critics who claimed that 1421 was a fraudulent book and hence such an august body as the Library of Congress should not give us a platform. The library replied they believed in the basic academic principle of free speech, and the symposium went ahead as planned.
The British Library
The British Library provides a superb service. An array of helpful experts is there to help those of us who cannot speak the language. If by chance the British Library does not hold the book (certain constituent books of the Yongle Dadian, for example), one is quickly put in touch with the library that does hold that book. I and five researchers have been using this superb service for years. Without it 1421 and 1434 could not have been written.
The Pepys Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge University
This holds the 1408 astronomical calendar.
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
Holder of the Waldseemüller Green Globe of 1506 and Dr. Monique Pelletier’s research into the provenance and authenticity of that globe—a vitally important map in the 1434 story.
Hong Kong Central Library
The principal library in Hong Kong is modern and most efficient. The majority of Chinese illustrations found in 1434 came from here and we are indebted for their services.
Library of the Duchess of Medina-Sidonia, Sanlucar de Barrameda, Andalucia, Spain
The duchess’s family, hugely wealthy landowners in fifteenth-and sixteenth-century Spain, backed Christopher Columbus and inherited his papers. These describe Columbus’s several visits to the Americas before 1492.
The Arquivo Nacional, Torre do Tombo, Lisbon
The repository of records of pre-Columbian Portuguese voyages to the New World. In my submission this will be a gold mine for future research. My thanks also to the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS); and the London School of Economics.
Museums, Institutions, and Universities
The British Museum holds a superb collection of Yuan and Ming dynasty ceramics and works of art, not least the Chinese map of the twelfth century that accurately depicts China overlaid with latitude and longitude lines. Some of the ceramics were excavated from remote parts of the world, for example, a fine blue-and-white early-Ming teapot buried in Australia.
Much evidence of the Chinese visits to Venice has been and will continue to be found in the Louvre, Paris—for example, Pisanello’s sketches and drawings.
The Musée Pierre-Nöel contains collections of Waldseemüller and his friends and colleagues’ memorabilia, the repository of records of Vespucci’s voyages, and is the best place to base research on Waldseemüller and his globes and maps.
The Doge’s Palace, Venice, holds the world map from India to America, constructed according to notations on the map itself, from information brought to Venice by Niccolò di Conti and Marco Polo. This was copied and given to Dom Pedro in 1428. The map is upside down—as some Chinese maps of that era were.
Chicago University has sponsored the superb electronic database system JSTOR, which has been invaluable to me and the 1421 team.
Surrey University has pioneered a nondestructive system of analysis of materials employing Rutherford backscattering techniques. In broad terms, this enables dating within 5 percent and the capacity to analyze material with sufficient accuracy to determine its origin. Surrey University has kindly advised us how to utilize this valuable resource, which we believe will prove of great assistance in analyzing artifacts found in or near wrecked junks around the world.
Classic Works Relied Upon for 1434
Professor Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, Cambridge University Press (various dates past 50 years)
The monumental work of thirty-five volumes is to me one of the most extraordinary pieces of human endeavor ever created. I have read all the volumes over the past fifteen years; without them I would not have started 1421 or 1434. Needham was a genius; his mind can cover the span of human knowledge from how the Chinese fermented liquor to more obscure aspects of Chinese cryptoanalysis. He has no peer.
John L. Sorenson, emeritus professor of anthropology at Brigham Young University, and Martin H. Raish are authors of the majestic work Pre-Columbian Contact with the Americas Across the Oceans. This is an annotated bibliography that briefly describes written works that discuss the transmission of fauna and flora across continents before Columbus. There are some six thousand entries. It seems to me this book demolishes any idea that Europeans can claim to have discovered the New World, and furthermore it seems extraordinary that this book is not in every school in the world. Every time that I give a talk, I do my best to acknowledge Sorenson and Raish. The research team and I are extraordinarily lucky to have had this invaluable resource.
University of Oregon emeritus professor Carl Johannessen, has collaborated with John Sorenson to write and present “Biology Verifies Ancient Voyages.” As they say:
Examination of an extensive literature has revealed conclusive evidence that nearly 100 species of plants, a majority of them cultivars, were present in both the Eastern and Western hemispheres prior to Columbus’s first voyage to the Americas. The evidence comes from archaeological, historical and linguistic sources, ancient art and conventional natural science studies…. the only plausible explanation for these findings is that a considerable number of transoceanic voyages in both directions across both major oceans were completed between the seventh millennium bce and the European age of discovery.
To me it is no longer arguable to claim any justification whatsoever that Europeans discovered the New World. Sorenson, Raish, and Johannessen have demolished that legend forever.
In The Art of Invention: Leonardo and Renaissance Engineers, Professor Paolo Galluzzi describes in 251 pages the contributions that Sienese engineers made to Leonardo da Vinci’s work. The book was used by me and the 1434 team as a bible when drawing up chapters 15–20. Galluzzi has an astonishing ability to analyze this fabulous era in Florence. I hope he will not be annoyed by the revelations of the contributions made by the Chinese delegation.
Frank D. Prager and Gustina Scaglia, savants of Italian Renaissance engineering, have written a splendidly readable book, Mariano Taccola and His Book “De Ingeneis,” published in 1972. Before Prager and Scaglia’s book, only Taccola’s books 3 and 4 (ca.1438) had been identified. They have reconstructed for the first time Books 1 and 2. In doing so they have shown how much Francesco di Giorgio adapted from Taccola and the influence that Francesco’s work had on Leonardo da Vinci. The book is profusely illustrated, showing the apparently extraordinary explosion of new mechanical and military machines after 1433. We have compared these with those shown in printed Chinese books published before 1420.
Ernst Zinner’s great book Regiomontanus: His Life and Work, provides a readable, lucid, and comprehensive account of the amazing life of Regiomontanus, whose ideas were later adapted by Copernicus and Galileo—to such an extent that perhaps the Copernican revolution should be renamed. I have quoted and abridged extensively from Zinner.
Joan Gadol has written a fascinating, and illuminating book, Leon Battista Alberti: Classical Man of the Early Renaissance. Alberti was notary to Pope Eugenius IV and would have met the Chinese delegation in that capacity. He possessed an enormous intellect and charisma and had a profound influence on Toscanelli, Regiomontanus, Nicholas of Cusa, Taccola, Francesco di Giorgio, and eventually on Leonardo da Vinci. I have quoted extensively from Joan Gadol’s wonderful book.
Academic Support
Academic support for the 1421 and 1434 theories are of course of great importance. The following have e-mailed with their interest in 1421 and/ or 1434, for which I offer my thanks: Professor Yao Jide, Professor Yingsheng Liu, and Professor Fayuan Gao, Professor Liu Xiaohong, Yunnan University; Professor John Coghlan, Melbourne–La Trobe University; Professor Miguel Lizana, University of Salamanca; Professor Arnaiz Villena, Madrid University; Professor Drewry, University of Hull; Professor Ng Chin Keong, director and Professor Yeen Pong Lai, Chinese Heritage Center, Singapore; Professor Ethan Gallogly, Santa Monica College; Professor Hwa-Wei Lee, chief, Asian Division, Library of Congress; Professor Hua Linfu, Remin University, Beijing; Professor Xin Yuan-Ou, Shanghai University; Professor Shi Ping, Naval Command College, China; Professor D. Hendrick, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; Professor Zhiguo Gao, China Institute for Marine Affairs; adjunct Professor John S. Lee, Utah Valley State College; Associate Professor Ted Bryant, associate dean of science, University of Wollongong; Professor Bi Quan Zhong; Professor Dobroruka, University of Brasilia; Assistant Professor J. David Van Horn, University of Missouri–Kansas City; professor emeritus of geology Dr. John W. Emerson, Central Missouri State University; Professor Peter N. Peregrine, associate professor and chair, Department of Anthropology, Lawrence University; emeritus professor of anthropology Peter M. Gardner, University of Missouri; Professor Gudrun Thordardottir, University of Reykjavik; J.R. Day, associate professor, division head, Science, Mathematics and Computer Studies, the University of Hong Kong; Professor Goran Malmquist, University of Stockholm; Professor Alex Duffey, chief curator, University of Pretoria; professor of architecture Richard Frewer, University of Hong Kong; Emeritus Professor Peter Gardner, University of Missouri-Columbia; Professor Peter Roepstorff, University of Southern Denmark; Professor Shuxuejun, JiangXi Normal University; Professor Susan Langham, visiting Shenyang University professor of quaternary geology; Professor Jack Ridge, Tufts University; professor of history and political science, Henry Pierson “Pete” French, Jr., State University of New York and Monroe Community College; Adjunct Professor Linda d’Argenio-Cruz, Brooklyn College; Professor Peter L. P. Simpson, Graduate Center, City University of New York; Richard Kanek, retired professor of physics; visiting professor Robin Pingree, Mombassa, University of Plymouth; Professor Jules Janick, James Troop Distinguished Professor in horticulture, Purdue University; Adjunct Professor Anthony Fazio, Graduate Division for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, New York Chiropractic College; R. Thomas Berner, professor emeritus of Journalism and American studies, Pennsylvania State University; professor of political science John Lawyer, Bethel University, Saint Paul, Minn.; Paul Winchester, clinical professor of neonatology at Indiana University Medical School; Rosa E. Penna, professor of English literature, Catholic University of Argentina and the University of Buenos Aires; Professor Victor M. Rivera, Baylor College of Medicine; retired professor of anthropology and the founder and director of the Overseas Research Center at Wake Forest University, D. Evans; Patti Grant-Byth, professor of English at Korea University, University of Minnesota; John Splettstoesser, retired professor of geology and president, American Polar Society, Minnesota; Daniel Mroz, assistant professor of theater, University of Ottawa; Professor John Preston, Eastern Michigan University College of Technology; Professor P. A. McKeown, emeritus professor Cranfield University, U.K.; Niels West, research professor, Department of Marine Affairs, University of Rhode Island; David Greenaway, pro–vice chancellor, professor of economics, University of Nottingham; Dr. Chris Gleed-Owen, research and monitoring officer, the Herpetological Conservation Trust, Bournemouth; Edwin M. Good, professor emeritus of religious studies and (by courtesy) of classics, Stanford University; Adjunct Professor Pedro Augusto Alves de Inda, University of Caxias do Sul; Associate Professor Anthony Nieli, Pennsylvania College of Technology; Rear Admiral Zheng Ming, adjunct professor of the Naval Engineering University, Beijing; Professor Carol Urness, curator of James Ford Bell Library, University of Minnesota; Professor Roderich Ptak, Munich University; Professor Zheng Wei, director of the Underwater Archaeology Center at the National Museum of Chinese History, Beijing; Professor Chen Xiansi, Professor Chao Zhong Cheng, and Professor Fan Jingming, Nanjing University; Professor Zheng Yi Jun, Shandong University; Professor Zhu Yafei, Beijing University; Professor Tao Jing Yi, Sri Lanka; Professor Xu Yuhu, Taiwan University; Professor Li Dao Gang, Thailand; Professor Sir John Elliott, Oxford University; Professor Mike Baillie, University of Belfast; Dr. Philip Woodworth, visiting professor, University of Liverpool; Professor Sue Povey, University College, London; Professor Christie G. Turner II, Arizona State University; Professor George Maul, Florida Institute of Technology; Professor Jane Stanley, Australian National University; Robert S. Kung, Hong Kong Zheng He Research Association; Dr. John P. Oliver, Department of Astronomy, University of Florida; Dr. Eusebio Dizon, director of underwater research, Museum of Manila; Dr. Joseph McDermott, University of Cambridge; Dr. Konrad Hirschler, London, School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS; Dr. Taylor Terlecki, Oxford University; Dr. Ilenya Schiavon, the State Archives, Venice; Dr. Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson, University of Malaga; Dr. Linda Clark, University of Westminster; Dr. Robert Massey, Royal Observatory, Greenwich; Dr. Bob Headland, Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge; Dr. Muhamed Waley, British Library, London; J. M. Nijman, Amsterdam Polytechnic; Dr. Alan Leibowitz, University of Arizona; Dr. Edgardo Caceres; Dr. Tan Koolin, University of Malaya; Dr. Leo Suryadinata, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore.
Visitors to Our Website, www.1421.tv
We cannot possibly mention everybody who has contributed to our research, be it by providing new evidence, ideas for new research, corrections for future editions of books, and constructive criticism. However, we have tried to incorporate as many as possible here, in no particular order. We are most grateful to the following:
Geoff Mandy, who kindly dedicated a great deal of his spare time to organizing the “1421 Friends” database. Thanks to Geoff, we hope, fingers crossed, that we have not left anyone off the list of acknowledgments either here or on our website.
Those who have kindly agreed to manage independent websites within the 1421 website. This concept was developed to enable people who are interested in specific aspects of the 1421 story to have a chance to advance knowledge in these areas, independently of the 1421 team. All time and effort was dedicated at their own expense, and we are particularly grateful to the following people: Joseph Davis, Mark and Laurie Nickless, Juan Carlos Hoyos, Cathie Kelly, Heather Vallance, Paul Lewis, and Anne Usher.
Those who have helped us out in the field with research include:
Dave Cotner, as mentioned previously; Laszlo, who has found a number of wrecks in the Caribbean, over the past twenty years, which were verified as being not of any Spanish, English, or Danish ships yet had Chinese characteristics and bore Chinese artifacts; Dr. John Furry and Dr. Michael Broffman, who set up the “China Landing” website, which has furthered exploration into the mystery of the “Sacramento Junk.” For more information please visit www.pinestreetfoundation.org/chinalanding.
The research of Dr. Greg Little and colleagues, who have found widespread evidence in the Caribbean that they believe point to a long-gone maritime culture more sophisticated than the Taino or Carib peoples. More recently we have been told that early tests suggest that the cut stones found date to circa five hundred years ago. For more information please visit the following links: http://www.mysterious-america.net/newunderwaterbim.html and http:// www.mys sterious-america.net/ bimini-caysal200.html.
Brett Green, whose untiring research against considerable adversity, has provided a host of evidence to support the pre-European Chinese exploration of eastern Australia; William C. Kleisch, Richard Perkins, and Paul McNamee, who have led the search for the elusive Great Dismal Swamp junk, which George Washington’s friend saw rise out of the swamp in North Carolina; John Slade, whose research shows the potential for pre-European mining throughout eastern Australia, from the Victorian goldfields to north Queensland; Robertson Shinnick, who found Dr. S. L. Lee’s medallion in North Carolina in 1994.
Other notable mentions go to Michael Boss and all of the other contributors to the “Gallery” section of the website—a wealth of beautiful paintings, photos, and artifacts; Jerry Warsing, an independent researcher who was one of the first to come forward and let us know that he had come to the same conclusions that I had, before me. We are most grateful for Jerry’s continued support and research in North America. Professor Zhiquiang Zhang, whose independent research on Zheng He’s travels has been invaluable to ours. D. H. C Tien and Michael Nation of Chinese Computer Communications, whose pioneering research with “Internet Chinese” may one day enable us all to learn to speak Chinese with the ease and fluency of our mother tongues; Anatole Andro, whose book The 1421 Heresy complements 1421 and explores the theory further; the Cantravel group, who have accompanied Marcella and me on many an exciting adventure and contributed a great deal to our research: Gill and Frank Hopkins; Carol and Barry Mellor; Gordon and Elizabeth Hay; John and Heleen Lapthorne, and Malcolm and Angela Potter.
The following people have all helped over the years to add to our ever-increasing wealth of knowledge, free of charge, and in good faith, for which we are extremely grateful: Malcolm Brocklebank, Chiara Condi, Tim Fohl, Robert and MeiLi Hefner, Damon de Laszlo, John Robinson, Bill Hupy, Greg Jeffrey, Hector Williams, Mary Doerflein, David Borden, Rewi Kemp, Ralph McGeehan, Glen Rawlins, Michael Ferraro, Gerald Thompson, Chung Chee Kit, Howard Smith, Kerson Huang, Al Cornett, Tony Brooks, Barbara McEwan, Nicholas Platt, Zhang Wei, Robin Lind, Gerald Andrew Bottomley, Nicholas Wallis, Ester Daniels, William Li, Malcolm Rayner, J. F. Webb, Commodore Bill Swinley, David Borden, Kathrine Zhou, Janna Carpenter, Guofeng Yang, Jamie Bentley, Martin Tai, Ted Bainbridge, Brian Darcey, Rob Stanley, Jan-Erik Nilsson, J. Phillip Arnold, David Lindsay, Mike Osinski, M. J. Gregory, Philip and Wei Lewis; Roger L. Olesen; Adela C. Y. Lee; Guy Dru Drury; Saro Capozzoli; Tim Richardson; Professor Luis Wanke; José Leon Sanchez; Ted Jeggo; Ng Siong Tee; Goo Si Wei; Paolo Costa; Ric Polansky; Professor Mike Bailie; Dr. Wang Tao; Bill Parkhurst, K’ung-Fu Tzu; Duncan Craig, Nico Conti, Barney Chan, Eric Maskrey, Philip Mulholland, Garry Berteig, George J. Fery, Tony Fletcher, Nancy Yaw Davis, J. Phillip Arnold, Chris Righetti, Andy Drake, Paul Wagner, Jim Mullins, John Braine-Hartnell, Michael Penck, Dr. William Goggins, Russell Parker, Bill Hupy, Gillian Bartlett, Shaka Garendi, Rodney Gordon, Bob Butcher, Karin Harvey, John Weyrich, Edward D. Mitchell, Nicholas Platt, David Turner, Phillip Bramble, Jean Elder, Anton McInerney, Patrick Moran, Joy J. Merz, John S. Marr, Scott McClean, Lynn Canada, Richard Zimmerman, William Vigil, Ric Baez, Terry Jackson, Jefferson Wright, Ean McDonald, Beth Flower Miller, Michael Ernest, Omar M. Zen, Bruce Tickell Taylor, Dr. Edward Tumolo, Marie E. Macozek, John Forrest, Julian Wick, Keith Wise, Bobby Sass, Michael Lane, Mari Stair, David Lorrimer, Mark Simonitsch, Dave Blaine, Daryl F. Mallett, Luis Robles, Barry Wright, Mark Smith, Jeff Spira, Chris Nadolny, Li Huangxi, John Pletcher, Paolo Villegas, Kevin Wilson, Janice Avery Clarke, Patricia Duff, Dan Brech, Matthew Wissell, Harry L. Francis, Yangyong Li, Fred J. Gray, Thomas Herbert, Michael Atkinson, Garth Denning, Janet Miller Wiseman, Dean Pickering, Arjan Wilkie, George Barrett, Mark Newell, Roy Dymond; Kate Meyer; Lawrence Smalheiser; Alice Chan; Desmond Brannigan, and Edward Grice Hutchinson.
Exhibitions and Symposia
The Singapore Tourism Board, in association with Pico Art International, mounted the exhibition “1421: The Year China Sailed the World” between June and August 2005. It was held in a large, specially made pavilion, a replica of that used by the early Ming emperors when touring the country. The pavilion was set up in a beautiful site overlooking Singapore Harbor. Pico, the celebrated exhibition designers, arranged for the loan from all around the world of artifacts that evidenced Zheng He’s voyages. The exhibition generated huge publicity and corresponding new evidence from Asia and China. I am indebted to the providers and sponsors of the exhibition. The exhibition has now moved to Dr. Tan Ta Sen’s wonderful Cheng Ho Cultural Museum in Malacca.
Laboratories and Testing Institutions
I am indebted to the following institutions for their economical, efficient, courteous, and timely testing of evidence: Rafter Radiocarbon Laboratory, Waikato University, GPR Data LLC, Oregon, GPR Geophysical Services, and Forest Research; Pearson plc. For their financial assistance in providing ground penetrating radar survey of the Sacramento wreck site; Surrey University for establishing the origin of elements in artifacts employing Rutherford backscattering techniques.
HarperCollins Team
For much appreciated help and assistance provided by HarperCollins and its imprint William Morrow in the USA—particularly my editor, Henry Ferris, and his assistant, associate editor Peter Hubbard. Thanks also to Lisa Gallagher, Lynn Grady, Tavia Kowalchuk, and Ben Bruton.
For HarperCollins help and support in the United Kingdom, thanks to Carole Tonkinson, Katy Carrington, Jane Beaton, Anna Gibson, Iain Chapple, and Jessica Carey.
The 1434 Team
Finally, my thanks to the team who have been directly responsible for 1434:
Midas, led by Steven Williams and assisted in Asia by Kaiiten Communications, have achieved almost unbelievable worldwide publicity—I am told more than 22,000 articles or mentions in print media alone. In acting for me I feel sure Midas did not charge normal commercial rates but what I could afford. Their success has resulted in an endless stream of new evidence and has assisted Transworld (who did a wonderful job with 1421) selling worldwide literary rights.
Christopher Higham, who handles TV rights, has contributed to worldwide sales by achieving important television documentaries broadcast across America, Europe, the Pacific, Australia, and Asia. This in turn has brought new friends to our website with new ideas and new evidence. Chris has borne his own expenses and contributed his time for five years.
Pedalo has devised websites www.1421.tv and www.gavinmenzies.net to cope with this avalanche of new evidence. Its efforts have resulted in very popular sites—we now have 3,500 visits a day from 120 countries around the world. Pedalo’s fee for achieving this was one third that of its nearest competitor.
Luigi Bonomi, my literary agent, principal of LBA, sold 1434 to HarperCollins, the first publisher to be approached. Luigi also sold 1421 to Transworld when he was a partner in Sheil Land. Luigi is, to my mind, the most successful British literary agent—authors take note! Without him there would have been no 1421 and no 1434.
Frank Lee, an experienced Chinese businessman, sold 1421 film rights to Warner Bros. China and was instrumental in negotiating with Phoenix Television to produce a lengthy Mandarin-language documentary on 1421 and in return set up a Mandarin 1421website—a great source of new evidence from Mandarin and Cantonese speakers. Frank has in his business career set up a very successful sales team in China and elsewhere in Asia and has a huge network of friends and contacts. He is also a discerning historian and has pioneered a new search engine for Chinese historical records. Frank will take over from me as chief executive of the 1421 and 1434 organizations in late 2008 or early 2009. By then we hope the Warner Bros. film on Zheng He will have been released for distribution.
Wendi Watson and her husband, Mike, have produced the illustrations and diagrams for 1434 as they did for 1421. Wendi has worked from my original unpromising scrawl with good nature and patience for the past seven years. Her results speak for themselves—in my view Wendi has greatly enhanced the book and made the detailed evidence much easier to assimilate.
Laura Tatham has word-processed 1434 in no fewer than fourteen drafts without once complaining or losing her sense of humor. Laura, who at this writing is approaching her ninetieth year, has supported me by word-processing my scribbles for the past twenty-five years. It is a blessing for me that I have been able to dissuade her from retiring!
Our researchers here—Erica Edes, Antonia Bowen-Jones, Vanessa Stockley, Lorna Lopes, Anna Mandy, Anna Rennie, Susie Sanford, and Leanne Welham—are a testament to today’s young people and the British education system. Unlike me, they are university graduates with good honors degrees. They have consistently and without exception shown dedication, responsibility, initiative, and hard work in assembling into a coherent whole a disparate mass of assorted evidence that pours into our computers day after day. They are head and shoulders better than I and many of my friends were at a similar age—we were, for the most part, drunken, irresponsible ruffians.
Their dedication and good nature is also attributable to Ian Hudson, who has led our research team these past five years. Ian has the qualities I lack—good nature, politeness, and common sense. Whatever readers consider we may have achieved is due to Ian as much as to me. The future success of the 1434 team will largely depend on Ian’s leadership, just as the 1421 team has these past five years.
And finally, I offer gratitude to my beloved wife, Marcella. Readers will appreciate that it is not an easy decision for a wife to be asked to agree to a husband in his seventies in moderate health plowing his royalties into future research rather than into a pension fund—and in addition taking on new financial obligations for yet further research. In our excitements and setbacks over the past five years since 1421 was published, Marcella has once again supported me to the hilt, enabling this great adventure to continue.