“New Zealand, actually. He went on seven voyages between 1405 and 1433 in what would be the largest ships built until the eighteenth century. He had over two hundred of them in what they called the Treasure Fleet, and twenty-eight thousand men.”

“Are you saying that the Chinese discovered America seventy years before Columbus?”

“No. Zheng didn’t place that writing in the pit. But the Admiral who did had been inspired by Zheng and embarked on a remarkable voyage of his own. There were three ships, and they left China in 1495 headed east. In command was Tsai Song. Admiral Tsai had been commissioned by the Emperor to trade as far and wide as he could. And because Zheng had found a continent to the west, Africa, he was convinced the earth had symmetry and there would be another to the east.”

“So they reached North America, but it was already a couple of years after Columbus did,” Max said, relieved that they wouldn’t have to rewrite the history books.

“Actually, from what I can tell, they landed in South America first. But there was a problem. As Tsai writes, one of the ships was cursed while they were in a ‘hellishly cold cove.’ I assume Tierra del Fuego.”

“What happened?”

“The crew was overcome by evil. That’s what Tsai writes. An evil so powerful that he felt it necessary to order the vessel destroyed and the stricken crew left to die. They sank it with an explosive charge placed against the hull.”

Hanley asked, “How big were these ships?”

“Over three hundred feet, with a crew of four hundred.”

Max gave a low whistle, impressed with medieval Chinese naval architecture.

“Does he say the nature of this evil?”

“No. The whole purpose of the pit, though, was to give a clue as to the ship’s location. He wrote that the evil surrounding it should never be approached, but he was also a pragmatist. There were untold riches aboard her, treasure they had planned to barter with any natives they came across.

“Tsai left two markers, one honoring the gods of the underworld—the one in the pit—and another to honor the gods in heaven.”

“Something underground and something above,” Juan mused aloud. “What is the second marker?”

“Tsai only writes that it can be seen from the heavens. And that they left it two hundred days from the Treasure Pit.”

“Two hundred days?” Max groused. “What the hell is that?”

“I assume,” Eddie said evenly, ignoring Max’s sarcasm, “that it means two hundred days’ sailing south of Pine Island. Obviously, the Ronish brothers thought it was around the twenty-fifth parallel.”

“Hold on a second,” Juan said. “If they were looking for a marker left by a Chinese Admiral, what were they doing so far inland? Whatever the marker was, surely it would be near the coast.”

“I don’t know.”