Ebook Fusang or the Discovery of America by Chinese Buddhist Priests in the Fifth Century

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 l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres" (vol. xxviii., 1761), the fact that he had found in the works of early Chinese historians a statement that, in the fifth century of our era, certain travellers of their race had discovered a country which they called Fusang, and which, from the direction and distance as described by them, appeared to be Western America, and in all probability Mexico. When Deguignes wrote, his resources, both as regards the knowledge 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.