By BC Cook
For Variety
YOU are probably aware that this question has been argued for hundreds of years. Although the Americas were already inhabited, we are curious to know who were the first to land on the shores on the eastern edge of the Pacific.
The following passage is taken from the journal of Tristan Jones, a contender for the title of “Man with the Most Salt in his Veins.” Having sailed hundreds of thousands of miles around the world, he holds numerous records to this day, including lowest sailor (Dead Sea) and highest (Lake Titicaca).
As he sailed along the Pacific coast of South America, fighting the current we have come to call El Niño, he laid out his case for the Asians. See what you think.
“Ptolemy, the famous Greek geographer who lived in Alexandria around 141 AD, made a map of the world by copying a map made some decades before by a fellow Greek, the first known mapmaker, Marinus of Tyre. On his map, Marinus had shown a great ocean to the east of China. On the other side of this ocean he placed a fairly straight coastline, joined at the top to the east of China and sweeping first east then south, all the way to the Antarctic.
“On this long, southbound, straight coastline, Marinus placed three prominent capes. They were located in approximately the position of the three most prominent capes of the South American west coast- Cape San Lorenzo, Cape Santa Elena, and Cabo Blanco. The first two are in Ecuador, the last in Peru. Marinus knew where those three capes were!
“From this information I can only conclude the following: 1. Marinus knew there was a continent on the eastern side of the Pacific Ocean. 2. Marinus also knew there were three prominent capes on that continent just south of the equator. 3. He knew there was a river just south of the three capes, which he named “Maiiu” (the local native word for river). 4. Given the above as correct, then Marinus knew at least two generations before Ptolemy of a voyage to that continent by someone who had made the round trip. 5. If Marinus knew of such a voyage, then that voyage must have been made across the Pacific, because neither Marinus, nor Ptolemy, on their maps, showed the east coast of America, only the west coast.
“Given that such a voyage was made, it must have been carried out by following the Pacific counter-current, which flows from west to east about five degrees either side of the equator. This is contrary to the currents further north and south, which flow from east to west. For example, if you throw a bottle into the sea at Sarawak in Borneo (a place known to Greek mariners) it will eventually finish up in the area of the Pacific off the coast of Ecuador.”
Has Tristan Jones gotten your attention?
Dr. BC Cook taught history for 30 years and is a director and Pacific historian at Sealark Exploration (sealarkexploration.org). He currently lives in Hawaii.
