Chinese admiral Zheng He discovered the American continent 72 years before Christopher Columbus, said Efrain Hallax, a researcher at Panama's International Maritime University (UMIP), on Friday.

    "There are maps that verify the arrival of the Chinese navigator to the strait of Magallen, Chile; these documents were later used by European seamen to verify this geographic point," Hallax, a Panamanian sea captain, said.

    Hallax said that Zheng carried out seven trips between 1405 and 1434, exploring the islands of the Pacific Ocean until he arrived to what is currently Chile's Tierra del Fuego.

    "Zheng He retired after his 7th trip and his navigation maps which are the testimony to those trips were sold by his generals to Portuguese and Genoese navigators, who later used them for their exploration trips," Hallax said, adding that Zheng He's navigation maps were taken to Portugal as contraband by merchants in that century.

    Some of Zheng's maps are currently in England and Italy but they are not made public to protect the official history of the arrival of Columbus, Hallax said.

    Hallax said the book "1421:The year China discovered the world," by British author Gavin Menzies, described Zheng's 300-boat fleet and 28,000 seamen.

    "The Chinese Navy's technology allowed them to develop a 16 knots per hour speed, which was a lot faster than a European boat's speed in the 14th and 15th century," Hallax said.

    Hallax explained that only experts and historians have knowledge of this worldwide navigation carried out by the Chinese admiral. He said that Zheng had "great scientific knowledge that opened the routes to European navigators."