I am reading a book by Gavin Menzies entitled "1421 - The Year China Discovered America". It suggest that Columbus, as a cartographer knew or suspected that there was a large land mass in the western Atlantic Ocean. He may have though the chart, obtained by one "de Conti" who supposedly sailed on a Chinese Junk around the Cape of Good Hope, up the western coast of Africa to the bulge, and then across the Atlantic to South America. From the introduction to the book, the Chinese, a eunuch named Wang Hi, sailed completely around both North and South America and down the western coast of Europe. He also sailed in the Antarctic Ocean, and the Antarctic (Southern)Ocean and mapped the coast of Antartica. I've been told this book is bogus, and the ancient map that the author said, sent him on his quest, was a hoax. The author mentions other maps before Colubus, in various European Libraries, and he mentions stones carved in many medieval languages that were found by European Explorers. In any event, if anything of the tale is correct, it limits Columbus' role to that of discoverer of American ONLY for the Europeans, who were late at discovery. Anne Anne Pemberton [log in to unmask] http://www.erols.com/apembert http://www.educationalsynthesis.org