Not to stir the pot, but Macau is a prominent feature in Shogun. A little Chinese history suggests that you, Mr. Spivey are correct. By the 1600s, Africans were all over Asia. How they got there is a wonderful piece of history known to very few Americans.
200 years before Christ, the Han Dynasty had mapped ocean routes between China and the Arabian Peninsula (countries known today as Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and southern Iraq and Jordan).
Between 220 and 280 AD the king of Wu sent a 20-year diplomatic mission along the coast of Asia, that eventually reached the Eastern Roman Empire.
The Song dynasty restored large-scale maritime trade from China in the South Pacific and Indian Oceans, the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa.
Between 1405 and 1433, the Chinese Admiral, Zheng He, commanded seven trading voyages - on the largest ships ever known to mankind. Zheng He’s ships sailed from China south around the tip of Asia, north into India, south along the African coast and around the Cape of Good Hope, and north along the African coast, and into what little remained of the Roman Empire in the east. Along the way, Zheng He encountered prosperous Chinese communities, established hundreds of years earlier. As you might expect, people married locals and had children together.
Zheng He’s ships were so large, he carried navigators, explorers, sailors, doctors, workers, soldiers, and translators. Wives, daughters, and concubines travelling onboard enjoyed fine accommodations. During He’s voyages, the sprouting soybeans carried in the hold, prevented scurvy that killed European sailors by the thousands (and left survivors with black, rotting teeth). In his diaries, Marco Polo described these massive ships carrying 500 to 1,000 people. Zheng He’s ships were so big, he returned to China carrying foreign dignitaries, ambassadors, advisors, navigators, merchants, and explorers – plus live ostriches, zebras, camels, and giraffes and lots of ivory. No doubt about it, Zheng He had really big ships.
I should note that westerners are disputing it like crazy, but Chinese DNA found in Native Americans supports contentions that Zheng He’s ships sailed all the way to North and South America. In fact, it is said that Zheng He was the first to circumnavigate the globe.
In 1557, the Ming Dynasty leased Macau to the Portuguese for a trading post. 440 years later, the Portuguese finally managed to persuade China to take Macau back. In the meantime, Portuguese trade connected China with Japan. Macau is basically an island and was cut off from China, so the idea that people of East Africa, India, Sri Lankan or the Asian Peninsula were not involved in every aspect of Portuguese trade, in one way, or another, is absurd.
Anyways that is the reason I accepted your article about Shogun without question.
PS. Zheng He is one of my favorite historical figures.
