Robert Chung wrote:
> Tom Kunich wrote:
>> "Marco says that he traveled to the Far North by compass. He reached
>> a place where the Pole Star appeared to have a southerly bearing. We
>> can tell from this statement that he had reached Baffin Island north
>> of Hudson Bay."
>
> You forgot the part where it says Marco Polo brought noodles to
> Greenland which is why the Scandinavians have a noodle-based cuisine.
He didn't bring noodles you retard, he brought rice. Greenlanders started
cultivating rice. Then, when the Greenland climate changed from tropical
back to arctic when the MWP ended, all the Greenlanders died because their
rice paddies froze.
Anyway, sometimes the guy raving at the bus stop actually has a kernel of
truth to what he is saying. Sort of like this:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/30501
Anyway, there is a lot of evidence the ancient Chinese were quite the
seafarers.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sultan/explorers.html
There are some people who seriously believe Marco Polo sailed on the
Chinese treasure junks down the west coast of the Americas (see below).
However, it is not credibly believed he made it through the NW passage to
Baffin Island, nor is there archeological evidence of Chinese influence in
the eastern north american arctic.
--
Bill Asher
http://www.marcopolovoyages.com/Articles/MPoloNewWorldMaps.html
and
http://tinyurl.com/2ez6ez
Marco Polo’s New World Expeditions:
The Role of Commercial Espionage in Westward Expansion and Discovery
from Labrador to Louisiana and the Pacific
by
Gunnar Thompson
(New World Discovery Institute)
As late as the Lewis & Clark expedition into the Louisiana Territory in
1804, explorers were still seeking an ephemeral “shortcut” to the Western
Sea and trade with the Orient. The quest was ignited in the mid-1400s by
the sudden popularity of Marco Polo’s travelogue, Description of The World.
This crazy quilt of scientific revelation and outrageous fantasy inspired
credulous explorers over a span of nearly four centuries.
The enduring impact of Marco Polo’s lost “Northwest Passage” or “Strait of
Anian” can be attributed to the common practice of using maps as
instruments of commercial espionage. Cartographers and explorers had more
obstacles to contend with than climatic changes and compass error when it
came to blazing pathways through the wilderness. The so-called “maps” they
copied from rivals often had deliberate inaccuracies that were intended to
mislead unwary pioneers. Thus, Portuguese charts of the 15th century
deceptively showed Marco Polo’s Japan and Cathay (China) a short distance
west of Europe; and Spaniards duped the English into publishing maps that
showed California as an island. Even French explorers followed the fading
chimeras of the Verazano Sea, the River Oregon, and the River of the Khan
(Canada) as they headed west.
A substantial portion of the confusion stemmed from Marco Polo’s secret
voyages to the West Coast of the New World. He led fairly substantial
expeditions in his capacity as a special revenue agent for Kublai Khan. The
tangible evidence we have that such voyages actually took place consists of
a number of very early maps showing the coasts of Alaska, Vancouver Island,
Puget Sound, California, and Peru. It was Marco’s job to determine the
points of origin and costs for such valuable Chinese imports as furs, jade,
emeralds, gold, and cochineal -- a vermilion dye used for the emperor’s
paper money.
Leo Bagrwo published a number of Marco Polo’s New Work maps in 1946 showing
the coast of Alaska and British Columbia. Flemish and Venetian maps of the
15th and 16th centuries indicated the West Coast locations of Marco’s New
World territories of “Anian,” “Quivira,” “Toloman,” and “Paru.” These names
confirm an earlier belief among Flemish cartographers that Marco Polo had
indeed visited New World shores. Although some scholars have disputed the
importance of Flemish maps (and Bagrow’s data), numerous Chinese artifacts
found along the West Coast, the presence of Chinese horse breeds in Ancient
America, and Native tales of visitors from the Orient provide
corroboration. Most telling is a statement by Marco that he had traveled to
a region of the Far North “where the Pole Star was behind him as he
proceeded in a northerly direction.” This geophysical phenomenon occurs
only in British Columbia.