bernard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> From the story:
>
> "Menzies believes that Zheng He took rice from
> China to America, brought back maize from America,
> took sweet potato from South America to New
> Zealand and Australia, and took Indian cotton to
> America and then brought a better strain of cotton
> to Europe. Besides, all sorts of fruits and
> animals were also transferred from one country to
> another."
>
> 1) there is no evidence of Asian rice in America
> prior to Columbus.
> 2) the sweet potato in Asia comes from Central
> America and not South America, further I have not
> heard of sweet potato being common in Australia.
> The sweet potato in Asia is present earlier than
> 1421.
> 3) Indian cotton is not found in the New World.
> 4) The first cotton in Europe was brought by the
> Arabs, for example the Spanish word for cotton,
> algodon, is of Arab origin. I doubt that any study
> has been made of 15th century European cotton
> cloth to show that it is the long-staple AADD New
> World variety.
>
> Bernard

There are many examples of dishonesty, exagerration, circular logic and misrepresentation in '1421'. It is unfortunate that it has become emblematic of a discussion that has been ongoing since '1492'. There are plenty of old arguments as well as new evidence to hash out. Menzies is a straw man and a distraction. Getting a lousy auto mechanic does not invalid the laws of physics, and '1421' doesn't render the work of many capable scholars, mute.