I wouldn’t be surprised. Some time ago I ran across a padre or conquestador’s ‘diary’ account of Peruvians and it was described that they would hunt ducks the same way as the Chinese/Japanese - by putting coconut mat hats on their heads and pretending to be floating coconuts to get closer to the ducks. Wish I could find it again. Here’s a few pix, larger but similar to what was sketched in the ‘diary’:
http://www.soniahalliday.com/images/19A-22-21.jpg
http://www.saturdaygalleryart.com/uploads/9/9/3/3/99339056/s169895090511963746_p1521_i201_w640.jpeg
I saw a show about a year ago that was interesting. They were thinking the Chinese may have visited the Americas long before Columbus.
Divers had been finding “doughnut” stones along the west coast of the US. Large stones with a hole in the middle. They determined the holes were man made. Later they figured out they were anchor stones from Chinese ships.
No reason the Chinese couldn’t have explored the entire west coast of the Americas.
