Zheng He's First Treasure Voyage Departs

July 11, 1405

Sixty-three nine-masted junks, some four hundred feet long, sailed from Suzhou carrying twenty-seven thousand men, giraffes-to-be, and enough silk to dress a continent. The Muslim eunuch admiral bore the Yongle Emperor's summons to every port of the Indian Ocean. China's navy was, briefly, the largest ever built. The fleet visited Champa, Java, Sumatra, and Sri Lanka, establishing the tributary diplomacy that defined all seven voyages.