Zheng He

Greetings people of the future, my name is Zheng He and I am here to tell you of my story. I was born in the year 1371 A.D. as a Muslim with my family. We were conquered by the Ming dynasty. My key to success was when I helped my good friend, Zhu Di, become commander of the Chinese Navy. He then persuaded the court to let me lead the ships.

My life hit its peak in the year 1405, when I made my very first expedition as admiral. How glorious it was.  Many voyages followed after this, with around some 48 to 317 ships (which so happened to be 9 masted and 440 ft long)  we were monumental, and to go along with our ships, we had nearly 28,000 men to go with them! We would travel to different places not knowing what to expect, and bring back magnificent things on our boats, even giraffes from Africa. Throughout the years I have traveled to numerous places, some being East Africa, Mecca, the Persian Gulf, Aleutian Islands, the Western Sea's (we boated through those seas 7 times), Indonesia, and many more. While on our journeys, we exchanged both cultural learning and technologies, while promoting social and economic development. To china, I also brought back important building materials, many exotic articles, and fuel. It is now 1433 A.D.,  and I am stopped in India, due to the fact that I have become suddenly ill, I know I don't have much time. 

Thank you for listening to my story,

Sincerely,

Zheng He

(Zheng He died in the year of 1435 in India, and after his death, the new emperor ordered all the ships and goods that Zheng He brought back to be burned to the ground. No one really knows the real reason for this, but some think it was because he wanted the focus to be inward only on China, and not out in other regions of the world.)