the Chinese went to Madagascar on their second trip. the emperor who sent
them out died and the next one decided that there wasn't anything in the
world worth looking at. given the worldview of the Chinese, which is a bit
more complicated than xenophobia, it was expected. whatever pet project the
prior emperor favored automatically had to be abandoned. the world's most
accurate clock of the time was built around 1000AD and then abandoned as a
curiosity for the same reason. no-one got that accurate in Europe until the
1300s. gunpowder pretty much had the same type of history.
Herb....
----- Original Message -----
From: "frank theriault" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005 12:13 PM
Subject: Re: PESO - Autumn or Winter?
Don't know about them either, but they were so technologically and
culturally advanced as compared to Europe in the middle ages, they
likely could have had they wanted to. The only thing that would give
me pause is that they were not the exploring type, were they?
(someone correct me if I'm wrong). I thought that they were rather
solipsistic, even to the point of xenophobia, and pretty much didn't
care what went on outside their territory as they thought the Rest Of
the World to be not worth worrying about.
