Customer Reviews

The Island of Seven Cities: Where the Chinese Settled When They Discovered America

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A few years back, a hypothesis was put forth that the Chinese had landed in North America in the first part of the fifteenth century, nearly a century before Columbus. Needless to say, this hypothesis has been somewhat controversial. Still, though I would not say that what I've read has been absolute proof, there is certainly plenty of compelling evidence to support the hypothesis. In his book, The Island of Seven Cities, Paul Chiasson pushes the hypothesis even further by claiming that a ruin on Cape Breton Island--the author's home island where his parents still live--is, in fact, the remains of a thriving Chinese settlement.

Like much of the rest of this early evidence, it is quite compelling. Mr. Chiasson starts with the legend of the island of seven cities which is scattered through the writings of early European explorers. He makes a case that this legend is based on fact and that the basis of the legend is a sophisticated set of communities that once existed on Cape Breton Island. Then, by eliminating the possibilities that these communities were actually Western settlements (Portuguese or French, primarily), he turns to the chance that these might have been Chinese.

Much of his evidence for a Chinese presence comes from what is known about a Native American tribe, the Mi'kmaq, whose culture was incredibly advanced for the time and bears many striking resemblances to Chinese culture. There religious beliefs and legends bear a striking Chinese fingerprint and, in particular, their written language (otherwise non-existent in North America) is based on pictograms amazingly similar to Chinese writing.

For me, however, his strongest argument came from Chiasson's own speciality: architecture. He is a Yale-educated architect specializing in architectural history so his arguments have weight. He examines the ruins very closely and shows very well how the structure of the ruins mirrors traditional Chinese architecture. It is a very convincing tale.

I'm not calling this book a slam dunk on the case of Chinese presence but it's an excellent effort. If there's a weakness in this book it's that he unfolds his evidence in a timeline that parallels his discovery of it which also parallels his story of personal illness. Not to be unsympathetic but I found his comments about his struggle with HIV to be distracting since HIV is such a powerful topic itself it takes away from what he is trying to say about this revolutionary idea. To me, if the book had been less personal it would have been more "scientific" and convincing. On the other hand, it must be granted that the author's struggle with disease is often what pushed him in his research.

In any case, this is an excellent book. Likely it is another shot in what will be a growing avenue of historical research. Mr. Chiasson deserves a lot of credit for his discovery and fine research. I hope this site will be examined in more detail for undisputable evidence of a Chinese presence.

Paul Chiasson has written an engaging history of his investigations into some mysterious ruins on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. Chiasson writes well and his story gains additional interest because he has included material on his Acadian/Scots ancestors who lived in the Cape Breton area and also because he writes frankly of his own struggles with AIDS.

Chiasson makes it clear that his mentor and inspiration is the controversial but intriguing writer Gavin Menzies, author of 1421, which claims that Chinese fleets explored much of the world, including the Americas, during the early 15th century. Like Menzies, Chiasson is enthusiastic about his subject and tells a compelling story, but at times his conclusions are questionable.

Chiasson makes a good case for Cape Breton Island being the fabled "Island of Seven Cities" which appeared on many European maps in the 1400s and 1500s. He also does a good job describing some puzzling ruins on Cape Dauphin, which seem to have no provenance in extant European records. But he never fully proves that the ruins were built by Chinese immigrants. (A lot of archaeological work needs to be done, particularly on some sites Chiasson and Menzies claim are tombs). Much of what he cites as proof is unconvincing: the Native American Mikmaq culture had some interesting artwork and clothing styles, but they appear (to me, at any rate) no more similar to Chinese work than they do Middle Eastern or African. The Kluscap stories are interesting, but they are very similar to other "bringers of civilization from afar" stories told by other cultures, such as the Egyptian Thoth legend or the Toltec/Aztec Quetzalcoatl mythologies. Chiasson seems to discount or ignore other possibilities for pre-Columbian origins of those ruins, such as Charles C. Mann's argument (in his book 1491) that Native American cultures were far more advanced and heterogeneous than many Eurocentrics thought. And then there are also many stories of early European contact with North America, from the historically valid (the Vikings) to the more speculative/questionable (Templar "Grail in America", etc)

To sum up, Chiasson has produced a well-written, interesting story with some intriguing speculations which should not be swallowed whole, but which should inspire deeper archaeological/historic investigations of Cape Breton Island's early history.

Chiasson is an architect interested in archaeology. This book recounts his efforts to find the origin of ruins on Cape Breton, and his final conclusion: that the Chinese had a colony there by the early part of the 15th century. Chiasson is a native of Cape Breton, in fact his family were among the early white settlers. He is somewhat of an adventurer, intellectually dogged and objective, and a good writer. The fact that he thought his life was going to be cut short by AIDs while doing the research adds piquancy. The personal aspect of the narrative is the most interesting; his effort to find Portugeese and French explanations for the ruins provides material, which while not compelling, was valuable as a case study of how historical research may be conducted.

Various findings fell into place for Chiasson when he read the work of another "amateur", Gavin Menzies ("1421: The Year the Chinese Discovered the World" ), who first hypothesized that the Chinese visited and mapped the East Coast of North America (they came via ocean currents from Africa, which is why they visited the East Coast rather than the West Coast). Menzies and Chiasson's findings have not been exactly embraced by the academic community - I checked the Internet, but found no late developments as regards acceptance, but many currently accepted ideas have had similar histories. Maybe someone will dig up one of the Chinese graves Chiasson thinks he has found.

The book might have been clearer if it hadn't followed Chiasson's order of discovery and developing thought, but it would also have lost something. The one area of Chiasson's account I think he should have done a better job with, was the references to writing among the Mi'kmaq, the Indians native to the area. A whole paragraph is quoted (p.161) in which the 17th century missionary LeClercq concludes only that they may have been literate once; later Chiasson says that LeClercq found that the Mi'kmaq had "knowledge of letters" from which Chiasson concludes "they knew how to read": I wish there was a longer quote from LeClerq about this actual knowledge, to put it in context, and more about the Mi'kmaq writing characters shown in this book.

Paul Chiasson discovers the renmants of a road while hiking in his native Nova Scotia. His curiousity spawns intensive, solitary and self funded research that includes every mapping he can find from a 1424 sketch to current aerial photograps. He reads the accounts of explorers and missionaries.

The author is a passionate amateur with good reason for his passion. He has made an incredible find, even more incredible for its having laid undiscovered in modern times.

Besides his clear and convincing text, he presents aerial photos which demonstrate the dimensions of this forgotten area and photos of the lore of the Mi'kmaqs which demonstrate a Chinese influence.

Chiasson has laid out the challenge and the ball is now in the court of the archeaologists. What is this discovery? Did the Chinese build these structures as Chiasson poses? If so, why is it that they were able to build on such a scale in Nova Scotia when so many others perished in the first year? Why has this been so long ignored?

Credit must be given to the book designers. The well selected maps and charts appear exactly where they should. It's rather mundane to comment on the type, but the type and layout, which added printing costs for sure, were easy on the eyes.

When I first picked up this book and started to read it, it glued itself to my hands and did not want to let go. Anyway, that's how it felt as I read page after exciting page of this excellent work. This rendition of the author's historical/archaeological research and discovery is of the highest and most exciting caliber. The author's quest was to find who built certain structures on Cape Dauphin on Cape Breton Island. In his effort to find out, in the first half of the book, the author discusses the European discovery and early colonization of North Eastern North America, more specifically, Cape Breton Island and its surroundings. The second half is more concerned with the local Mi'kmaq Indians, including parallels between their culture and that of the Chinese. Chinese history is also briefly covered in this half, as it pertains to the main theme of this book. Included throughout are snippets of the author's personal life as he conducts his painstaking research. When I first read the book's subtitle, I was very skeptical: how could the Chinese have made their way to Eastern North America before the Europeans? After having read the author's arguments and his well-constructed analysis, I am now willing to entertain the possibility that he may indeed be on the right track. The author's writing style is very chatty, friendly and engaging, so much so that, as stated earlier, I could not put the book down. This book would be of great interest to history buffs as well as anyone who loves a good who-done-it story.

I have just finished this book, and I can say that it is excellent.

This is a book about a search that was a solution to one of the all-time mysteries of global exploration, dating back to the early 1400s, decades before Columbus. I actually knew something of this mystery before hearing about this book, but I bought it in regards to another mystery. Two mysteries came together and - well, read the book!

I was especially impressed with what the author did not try to do. He was looking for a solution to a riddle, and he looked under every likely stone, one after the other. Logically and methodically and thoroughly, he walks us through every option. As each one turned up nothing, he kept at it, until there were no more stones to turn over. He didn't try to push any pet solution(s) on the reader; he just kept eliminating possibilities, all the while thinking that the one he was looking at would be the one. And he thought of giving up altogether...

So, what happened when he ran out of answers? Serendipity stepped in...

In a true story, luck showed the way. And all the answers didn't come from him, not at all. But when the pieces fit, well, they just fit... And when they do, you have to recognize it.

The book left me with some unresolved questions, so I hope the author can move on and solve those for me, too. I want a sequel...

THE ISLAND OF SEVEN CITIES: WHERE THE CHINESE SETTLED WHEN THEY DISCOVERED AMERICA gathers and presents tangible proof that the Chinese had their own settlement in America long before Columbus. Chaisson is an architect and teacher: his insights on a series of ruins in Cape Breton Island rewrites American history, and is essential reading for any who would understand early American origins and evidence on explorations.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Chiasson details a very convincing case for a Chinese settlement. In spite of what some claim, Gavin Menzies wasn't his mentor or inspiration. Chiasson only submitted his theory to Menzies after realizing his find was Chinese. Chiasson found what Menzies did not, hard, tangible evidence. The professional skeptics haven't been able to disprove Chiasson's theory. The skeptics attempt to attribute the finds to quarry efforts and natural causes are shallow and weak because photos predating those things support Chiasson's finds. This is one of the must-read books ot the year.

An interesting but implausible tale to say the least. The author writes about the existence of stone "platforms" on Cape Breton Island (CBI) that he stumbled across a few years back. Curious, he tries to track down the builders of said platforms with the usual suspects being the French and the English. Going through the existing historical record reveals nothing about who the builders could be.

He then makes the jump to the idea that it must have been Chinese explorers/settlers who did the work during the heyday of Ming China's voyages of discovery. (I suspect that those voyages were more about tribute gathering and trade than about discovery.) Anyone familiar with Menzies' book 1421 will know his theory of how the Chinese sent expeditions circling around the globe yet mysteriously somehow missing Europe(!).

I'm extremely skeptical about Chiasson's theory that it was the Chinese who built the platforms for a couple of reasons. First of all, there is very little reason that I could see as to why anyone would want to build a settlement on Cape Breton Island unless there was something very valuable there. As Chiasson says, there is coal and there is gold. Unfortunately for the theory, China has lots of coal so it would not be economically viable to transport it all the way back to China from CBI and the gold deposits were not enough to sustain later European ventures. Again, China has closer sources of gold at hand and, even if they were to send out fleets of gold miners, there are closer sources along the way to CBI such as South Africa, West Africa, and Central America.

Second, Chiasson's talk of the Chinese using the Gulf Stream to mosey on up the Eastern Seaboard sounds plausible but he also fails to mention that this same current will eventually land you in Ireland and Scotland too!

There are also a couple of other bothersome points I'd like to bring up. First, Breton does not refer to the English but to the region of Brittany in France. And, second, the pictures of the Minority Peoples of China that he uses to posit a possible link between China and the local Micmac (sp) tribe is laughable. It's implausible to suppose that such people would be on board important Han Chinese voyages in sufficient numbers to make a cultural difference in a tribe thousands of miles away!

Like I said, interesting but implausible. I suspect that only actual archaeological digs will dispel the mystery of the platforms, if any.

One of Architect Paul Chiasson's motivation to writing THE ISLAND OF SEVEN CITIES: WHERE THE CHINESE SETTLED WHEN THEY DISCOVERED AMERICA was his life changing experience of facing mortality. Chiasson discovered he was HIV-positive. Although the book is not an autobiography of his experience, there is semi-autobiographical information that he shares with his readers, which inspired him to write the book, revisiting his birthplace of Nova Scotia and rediscovering his ancestral history closely linked to French explorer Samuel de Champlain. But the compelling aspect of his discovery is that upon learning of his illness, he hiked to the mountaintop on Cape Breton Island where past generations of his family had lived, and by accident, he came across ruins that may have dated back to the Ming dynasty. And with this discovery he formulated a hypothesis claiming that the Chinese may have landed in North America before European explorers.

This books ties in with a previous book examining China's possible role and contribution to the exploration of the New World, 1421: THE YEAR CHINA DISCOVERED THE NEW WORLD by Gavin Menzies. Drawing from Menzies's discovery, Chiasson went on a two-year research expedition to finding more about the ruins and proving that they were settled by the Chinese. The Mi'kmaq, an indigenous people of the island, may have derived their culture from the Chinese, and in turn, helped French settlers to live and thrive on the island centuries later. But Chiasson's thought-provoking book is purely hypothesis, and extensive research by archaeologists and historians are still in order for his findings to be definite; if proven correct, this part of history adds another dimension to the understanding of world history.

ISLAND OF SEVEN CITIES is a fascinating read. Chiasson offers insight to the many facets of how the exploration and discovery of the North American continent and its various settlements included a global community of different countries from the West and possibly may have included the East. For several historians this is skeptical history, but for curious minds wanting to understand the discovery of the New World from different perspectives, this is an interesting book.