BERTHOUD BUDDHISM IN AMERICA. 



BUDDHISM IN AMERICA. 



BY EDWARD L. BERTHOUD. 



To My Friends of the Davenport Academy : 



Ladies and Gentlemen — With much diffidence I impart to you a 

 curious coincidence which I have in the past year examined, bearing 

 upon the mooted point of the frequentation, or, perhaps, more properly 

 speaking, upon the discovery by Chinese Buddhist priests of North 

 America in the present boundaries of Mexico or Southern CaUfornia. 



The original account was derived, about the year 1761, by De 

 Guignes, a celebrated French sinologist, from the ancient year-books 

 or annuals of the Chinese Empire, and its substance is about as fol- 

 lows : "That in the year 499 of our era one Hoei-schin, a Buddhist mis- 

 sionary (his name signified 'universal compassion') came to Hua-Kang 

 in China, and he narrated that he had come from a country named 

 'Fu-Sang,' which is 20,000 Chinese miles, or 'li,' easterly from 'Tahan,' 

 the Chinese name for Alaska and the Aleutian Isles. That Hoei-schin 

 also told that many trees called Fu-sang grew there, whose tender 

 sprouts were eaten, whose fruit was Hke unto a 'pear' in shape but red, 

 while from the bark of this tree the inhabitants prepared a sort of linen, 

 and also ornamented stufts." All of which agrees remarkably with the 

 Mexican maguey plant, or agave, which to-day precisely produces the 

 same articles of every-day use for the lower classes of Old Mexico. 

 During a recent visit to Arizona and the Sonora border, I have re- 

 peatedly seen the agave plant, and coarse cloth made from its fibres, 

 while its tender heart was eaten by the Apaches and other Indian 

 tribes, and the Mexicans. 



Hoei-schin also stated that five beggar Buddhist monks went there in 

 458, and succeeded in enlightening the people there with the doctrines, 

 writings, and images, of Buddha. He also describes the customs of 

 the people he saw there, their products, and the domestic animals used ; 

 that they had no knowledge of iron, but that gold, silver, and copper 

 were not prized nor used as money; and that horses (?), oxen, and 

 stags were harnessed to wagons, etc. 



[Proc. D. a. N. S., Vol. VI. | 4 [March 29, 1893. J 



