Bye Columbus

Did the Chinese arrive first?

To the Chinese, Columbus has never been much of a hero. Three years ago, a Chinese historical journal denounced him as a "colonial pirate" for setting sail to pillage Asia. Now a Chinese scholar is claiming that Columbus may have been beaten to the New World by a 5th century Buddhist monk named Huishen.

Sinologists have long known of the monk's voyage to a mysterious land called Fusang. But its location has been a source of contention. So has the veracity of his tales, which were questioned even by his contemporaries. Still, some modern scholars say Fusang could have been real, perhaps Japan or even the Pacific Coast.

In the latest issue of the official mag azine China Reconstructs, Maritime Historian Fang Zhongpu purports to solve the puzzle. His prime evidence: a 35-kg (80-lb.) doughnut-shaped stone discovered in 1972 off Point Conception, near Santa Barbara, Calif. Fang says that the stone is a clear sign of a pre-Columbian Chinese visitation, and he cites the testimony of some American scientists to back him.

Roland Von Huene, the U.S. Geological Survey ma rine geologist who first spot ted the curious object, recalls: "The center hole had clearly been made by tools."

James Moriarty, a University of San Diego marine archaeologist, identifies it as a so-called messenger stone, probably of ancient Chinese origin. Such a stone could be sent sliding down an anchor chain, via the hole, to strip away accumulations of seaweed. Another stony relic, discov ered five years ago off Los Angeles by two sports divers, Wayne Baldwin and Robert Miestrell, also hints at an early Chinese presence. To Moriarty and his assistant, Archaeologist Larry Pierson, it looks very much like the type of mill stone known to have been used by Chinese sailors as anchors.

Other scholars are not so sure. USGS Mineralogist Ching Chang Woo, who was born in Canton, tried to date the messenger stone from its mineral crust, but could not do so because the sea deposits such materials at varying rates. Former U.C.L.A. Archaeologist William Clewlow allows that the stones are "enticing bits of evidence," but "just aren't conclusive."

Fang is far more positive. By the 3rd century A.D., he notes, Chinese merchant seamen had reached the Indian Ocean and could reckon their sailing speeds and distances. "So it would have been quite possible for Chinese ships to cross the Pacific in the 5th century."

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