Page:Daily British Colonist (1882-10-21).pdf/3



The Oldest Inhabitants—Were the Chinese Here 3000 Years Ago?

What if antiquarians are able to prove that the Chinese were the earliest settlers of this continent? That from the loins of the children of the flowery kingdom are descended the native tribes whom the white pioneers found possessing the land? This theory has been often advanced. A few weeks ago a party of miners who were running a drift in the bank on one of the creeks in the mining district of Cassiar made a remarkable find. At a depth of several feet the shovel of one of the party raised about 30 of the brass coins which have passed current in China for many centuries. They were strung on what appeared to be an iron wire. This wire went to dust a few minutes after being exposed; but the coins appeared as bright and new as when they first left the Celestial mint. They have been brought to Victoria, and submitted to the inspection of intelligent Chinamen, who unite in pronouncing them to be upwards of 3000 years old. They bear a date about 1200 years anterior to the birth of Christ. And now the question arises, how the coins got to the place where they were found. The miners say there was no evidence of the ground having been disturbed by man before their picks and shovels penetrated it; and the fact that the coins are little worn goes to show that they were not long in circulation before being hidden or lost at Cassiar. Whether they were the property of Chinese mariners who were wrecked on the north coast about three thousand years ago and remained to people the continent; or whether the Chinese miners who went to Cassiar seven or eight years ago deposited the collection where it was found for the purpose of establishing for their nation a prior claim to the land, may never be known. But the native tribes of this coast resemble the mongolian race so closely, that one would not be surprised at any time to hear of the discovery of yet more startling evidences of the presence of Chinese on this coast before the coming of the whites.