Physical Conditions. Some modern scholars have pointed out that as early as the year 500 the watercraft of ancient West Africa were suited to transatlantic travel. Because West Africa is only 1,600 miles from South America with islands in between, this voyage would not have been as long or arduous as the one Polynesians made around the year 400 across the Pacific Ocean to Easter Island off the coast of Chile. Furthermore, currents running along the west coast of Africa loop westward toward the Americas. Some modern scholars have suggested that a ship could sail from Africa to the Americas almost without any navigation. In 1500, for example, the Portuguese fleet of Alvares Cabral was caught in a storm off the coast of West Africa and ended up in Brazil. Although anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians have uncovered evidence to suggest an early West African...