Chinese Explored Cape Breton Island Long Before the Europeans
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1 Chinese explored Cape Breton Island long before the Europeans Sheng-Wei Wang* 26 August 2020 Abstract This paper compares Cape Breton Island and Newfoundland on Matteo Ricci’s 1602 world map ‒ Kunyu Wanguo Quantu《坤舆万国全图》‒ with their counterparts on four other contemporary European maps. The four maps are: 1) the 1562 Map of America by Diego Guttierez; 2) the 1569 World Map by Gerardus Mercator; 3) the 1570 World Map by Abraham Ortelius; and 4) the 1594 World Map by Petrus Plancius. The comparisons give clear indications that Kunyu Wanguo Quantu is not a direct or adapted copy of these European maps. This paper also makes an in-depth analysis of recent archaeological findings of ruins on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, in Canada. The analysis focuses on stonework on the island and the existence of an ancient canal across the village of St. Peter’s. The canal separated Cape Breton Island into two islands as depicted on Kunyu Wanguo Quantu but not on these four other European maps. The results derived from the analysis offer compelling evidence showing that: 1) Chinese lived on Cape Breton Island before the arrival of the Vikings around 1000 A. D.; and 2) the mariners of Admiral Zheng He (郑和) explored the island and built (or rebuilt) the ancient canal during their sixth voyage to the “Western Ocean” in the 1420s. This was long before the arrival of the Europeans in the New World. Such findings render the Chinese origin of Kunyu Wanguo Quantu undisputable. Keywords: Cape Breton Island, Kunyu Wanguo Quantu, Matteo Ricci, Vikings, Zheng He. 1. Introduction For over four hundred years, Matteo Ricci’s 1602 map ‒ Kunyu Wanguo Quantu1 (also abbreviated as “Ricci’s 1602 map” in this paper) ‒ with Chinese characters and latitudinal and longitudinal lines, has been widely regarded as a map drawn by Ricci and his Chinese collaborators based on the European maps which Ricci brought with him to China in 1582.2 At that time, it was assumed that the Chinese people did not know that the Earth is round, and hence, they would not be able to project geographical information from a round Earth onto a flat surface.3 This explains why it was believed that Kunyu Wanguo Quantu could only be a direct or an adapted copy of other European maps. However, this viewpoint has been challenged recently. 4 In this paper, I will show multiple lines of evidence to confirm that Kunyu Wanguo Quantu has a Chinese origin. In the following sections, I shall: 1) examine two key geographical locations ‒ Cape Breton Island and Newfoundland ‒ on Ricci’s 1602 map, and compare them with their counterparts on four well-known contemporary European maps; 2) examine the latest archaeological findings on Cape Breton Island; and 3) make further map comparisons before drawing conclusions. 2 2. Kunyu Wanguo Quantu shows Cape Breton Island and Newfoundland differently from other European maps Matteo Ricci arrived in Zhaoqing, China, in 1582 and started to make maps in 1584. Since he presented the map ‒ Kunyu Wanguo Quantu ‒ to the Ming Wanli Emperor5 (who reigned from 1572 to 1620) in 1602, I choose four other contemporary Europeans maps made in 1562, 1569, 1570 and 1594 to compare with Kunyu Wanguo Quantu to find their differences in depicting Cape Breton Island and Newfoundland. These were the two earliest geographical locations in North America known to the European explorers. I include the 1594 map because Ricci might have obtained the latest European map before he made the 1602 map, since the Haijin6 or sea ban in the Ming Dynasty had been lifted in 1567 and China stopped the closed door policy. Since Jacques Cartier7 was the first European to enter the Gulf of St. Lawrence ‒ in 1534 through the Strait of Belle Isle, finding that Newfoundland is an island ‒ the European maps should depict this part of the world reasonably well, although none of Cartier’s original maps have survived. This is also the reason why I believe that Matteo Ricci, as a European and a mapmaker, should be well aware of this event, and his 1602 Kunyu Wanguo Quantu should reflect this important European exploration. This issue will be further examined in this paper. The 1562 Map of America by Diego Guttierez8 in Fig. 1 shows Cape Breton Island as a part of the Canadian continent, not as a separate island, and Newfoundland is poorly represented. The 1569 World Map by Gerardus Mercator9 in Fig. 2 shows that Cape Breton Island is at about the correct geographical location as a single island, while Newfoundland is also at about the right location but is broken up into several islands. The 1570 World Map by Abraham Ortelius10 in Fig. 3 shows Cape Breton Island as a single island, but Newfoundland is broken up into several islands. The 1594 World Map by Petrus Plancius11 in Fig. 4 shows Cape Breton Island at about its correct geographical location as a single island, and Newfoundland is also at about the right location also as a single island; both islands are depicted closer to their actual shapes. Left: Fig. 1 East coast of Canada extracted from the 1562 Map of America by Diego Guttierez (see endnote 8; public domain). Right: Fig. 2 Also east coast of Canada, but 3 extracted from the 1569 World Map by Gerardus Mercator (see endnote 9; public domain). Each figure uses a dotted-line arrow to point at the Cape Breton Island labelled as C. de Breton and a solid-line arrow to point at Newfoundland labelled as Terra de Baccalaos. Left: Fig. 3 East coast of Canada extracted from the 1570 World Map by Abraham Ortelius (see endnote 10; public domain). Right: Fig. 4 Also east coast of Canada, but extracted from the 1594 World Map by Petrus Plancius (see endnote 11; public domain). Each figure uses a dotted-line arrow to point at the Cape Breton Island labelled as C. de Breton and a solid-line arrow to point at Newfoundland labelled as Terra de Baccalaos. From the above qualitative comparisons, it is clear that the European cartographers in the second half of the sixteenth century continued to improve their mapping of this part of the world. But since none of them ever explored or lived on Cape Breton Island, they were not aware that the island was actually not a single island during the period when their maps were drawn. This will become clear in Section 9. When I first examined Kunyu Wanguo Quantu in Fig. 5, I was startled to see that Cape Breton Island and Newfoundland are depicted so differently from what I saw in the above-mentioned European maps. Specifically, on Kunyu Wanguo Quantu, 1) Newfoundland becomes a peninsula labelled as Ke Er De Le Ya Er De 可尔得勒亚尔地 (to which the left solid-line arrow points; translated from the Portuguese “Terra Corterealis”); 12 2) “Terra de Baccalaos” identified as Newfoundland in the above- mentioned other Europeans maps becomes, instead, Ba Ge Lao De 巴革老地 (to which the right solid-line arrow points; directly translated from the Portuguese “Terra de Baccalaos”),13 separated from Ke Er De Le Ya Er De 可尔得勒亚尔地 by a bay; and 3) Cape Breton Island becomes two islands: Gui Dao 鬼岛 or the Ghost Island (to which the left dashed-line arrow points; 鬼 gui, meaning ghost; 岛 dao, meaning island; 鬼岛 Ghost Island, meaning notorious for its shipwrecks),14 and Jia Li Han Island 加里漢岛 (to which the right dashed-line arrow points). They are correctly located on the map near the entrance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off the mainland of today’s Nova Scotia Province. 4 The fact that Newfoundland is depicted so differently in Kunyu Wanguo Quantu from these other European maps tells us immediately that Kunyu Wanguo Quantu cannot be a direct or adapted copy from these maps. It must not be a European map dated after 1534, the year when Cartier entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence by the Strait of Belle Isle and discovered that Newfoundland is an island. In 1602, when Europeans already knew that Newfoundland is an island, why did Matteo Ricci depict it as two large peninsulas ‒ 可尔 得勒亚尔地 (Terra Corterealis) and 巴革老地 (Terra de Baccalaos) ‒ separated by a huge bay? Fig. 5 East coast of Canada extracted from Ricci’s 1602 map of Kunyu Wanguo Quantu (see endnote 1; public domain). This figure uses two dotted-line arrows to point at Cape Breton Island and two solid-line arrows to point at Newfoundland. Furthermore, why does Cape Breton Island become two islands in Kunyu Wanguo Quantu? This requires an in-depth investigation. But before that discussion, I would like to first address the question whether the Chinese people knew that the Earth is round and whether they could be cartographers who projected geographical information from a round Earth onto a flat surface, when Matteo Ricci showed Kunyu Wanguo Quantu to them. What was the truth? 3. Chinese knowledge of a round Earth, the Chinese latitude, the Chinese map projection and the dating of Kunyu Wanguo Quantu The ancient Chinese had an explicit account of the shape of the Earth, reflected in the concept of Hun Tian Shuo “浑天说” 15 or the “Theory of Sphere-Heavens” or the “Geocentric Theory in Ancient Chinese Astronomy” which originated in the Warring States period (475 ‒ 221 B. C.). The basic concept is as follows:16 5 。。。天地之体，状如鸟卵，天包地外，犹壳之果黄也；周旋无端，其形浑浑然， 故曰浑天也。 。 。半覆地上，半在地下。其二端谓之南极、北极。 。 。两极相 去一百八十二度半强。。。赤道带天之纮，去两极各九十一度少强。 My translation of the above passage is as follows: … The shape of the celestial body is like a bird’s egg.