The Book By Menzies Is A Grotesque Fraud! ~
By Maria Cristine Marques Pedroso Malhão Pereira
Janeiro 29, 2005
Last month, Galvin Menzies came to Portugal to present his book-- “1421 the year the Chinese discovered the world?”. As it is a very polemical book, Prof. Jin Guo Ping, a Chinese teacher living in Portugal, with great knowledge of the Portuguese History and also of the Chinese, was invited as an opponent to the author.
My husband, a Portuguese naval officer, who published one book about navigation, and another about Vasco da Gama voyage, and spent most of his life cruising the world aboard several sailing ships, and was for four years commander of the “Sagres”, the Portuguese Tall Ship, and has a master degree in History of the Discoveries and Expansion, was also asked, by some universities teachers, to be present and discuss the mentioned book.
For a whole week, at home, I watched my husband, while reading Menzies book, becoming furious with some of its passages and saying that he couldn’t understand how so many people have been foolish by such extraordinary inventions. He went on, showing me old maps, telling me of eclipses mentioned in the book that he (with a sophisticated computer program), could prove that the Chinese junks were never seen in such places -- because the eclipse was seen in one area and Menzies located his junks in another completely different -- and my husband went on, speaking about longitudes and latitudes and commenting how Menzies had distorted maps to prove his wrong suppositions,and laughing at the speed Gavin Menzies assumed the old junks could sail.
So, when the day arrived, I entered the conference hall, completed convinced that the book was a grotesque fraud!
In front of me, seated at a huge table, decorated with expensive exotic flowers, I finally met the author. He impressed me favorably, with his stylish coat, oxford shirt and club tie. His shoes were the proof that he was a very British Dandy indeed! When he got up, I was completely involved by his well modulated voice. Being a charming old gentleman, speaking effortlessly and showing perfect knowledge of what he was affirming, in seconds he conquered me. He went on showing charts, juxtaposing them, transporting them from one place to the other… well…in no time I forgot all what my husband had for a week told me, and I truly believed the author. I looked at my husband, and I thought :- “Ho! the poor darling must have seen the things completely wrong. Of course the British gentleman is right. Of course the Chinese went all over the world, like the Flying Dutchmen. Why not?.”
Chinese Professor
When the charming author finished his presentation, the Chinese professor started commenting, and he was horrible, awfully, terrible, to my hero. He even said that the author, without knowing a world of Chinese, being so stupid, he didn’t even know what Malayalam (the language spoken by thousands of Indians around Calicut ) is, dared to think he knew more about Chinese History, than the billions of Chinese do. He wonder how could a foreigner, with no knowledge of China, not speaking Chinese, without studying the Chinese old scripts, pretended to know more about the Chinese Eunuch Admiral Zheng He, than the millions of Chinese historians, who are this year commemorating the 600 years of his seven well documented voyages do. He also spoke about the DNA proof referred by Menzies, saying that as everybody knows, the DNA can say that Chinese blood exists in somebody veins, but can not say, in what year it appeared in that person. And he laughed in Menzies own presence. Well, he went on, and on, being so nearly rude to my hero, that he even called him a liar, in Menzies own face. I must say I was appalled!
My Husband
Then it was my husband’s turn to speak. I nearly pulled his coat down, to prevent him of saying one more word against the poor gentlemen. But nothing could stop him. Thanks goodness, he was always very polite, nearly deferent to the older naval officer, but he went on, and on, commenting page after page, showing maps, saying Menzies had distorted them to serve his own fraudulent purposes, saying that it was completely impossible that huge juncos could ever sail against currents and specially against the monsoon.
There, as I had accompanied my husband to Calicut to study the possible anchorage of Vasco da Gama Fleet, and to document my husband’s book, I for sure know that no sailing ship can anchor in those waters during the monsoon or can sail against that predictable huge climatically phenomenon ( particularly an ancient boat that couldn’t sail against wind). So I looked at my hero’s face….he was very serene showing no sign of even listening to what was being said. There he was, playing with a pen, endlessly turning in his fingers… I was intrigued.
My husband went on, commenting how could Menzies imagine that the Chinese fleet sailed in the winter around the Cape of Good Hope area, without even loosing a ship, when it is known and proven, that those dangerous waters are full of wrecks of so many different nationalities except Chinese (of course they never arrived there). My husband commented, that in South Africa, where we both went for a conference last August, there is a group of historians and archaeologists called Centre for Portuguese Nautical Studies, exploring the Portuguese wrecks of the XVI century, and till now, although they have studied nine Portuguese wrecks, and dived all over the area, they haven’t discovered any evidence of Chinese junks. How come Menzies didn’t even have a broken mast to prove the passage of the Chinese fleet around the whole world, while we, the Portuguese, have such great proof of our passage for so many places?
Then it was Menzies turn to reply
There I was, very still, waiting for my hero to defend himself….but he didn’t even address the Chinese professor. He only looked to my husband side, and in a very shyly way, said in a low voice. –“Thank you Captain, in my next edition I will correct some of the things you have so accurately pointed out. But speaking of the Monsoon, well, it is a very complex matter, to which I will refer later.”
And that was the end of it. I was so embarrassed that I had difficulty in getting up. Then I understood it all. The man is really a liar.
He is so smart, that he only mentioned the problem of the monsoons, pointed out by my husband, because it was the only matter that the audience had understood. All the rest my husband had commented about charts and stars, nautical knots, latitudes and so on, was far too professional for that apple pie audience to understand. So the liar didn’t even bothered to comment.
I was so furious, discovering all this fraud, that today, I took my time, and I decided to write this, to advise people like me, to be aware of such a big trick. I want to help people not to be as frustrated and deceived as I have been.
Cristina Malhão Pereira
madrugada@sapo.pt


thebookbymenziesisagrotesquefraud