Photo: AFPAn Indian seaman's tale of being shipwrecked on a remote northern Australian island could shed light on the 230-year-old disappearance of a renowned French explorer, one of maritime history's greatest mysteries, an anthropologist said on Thursday. In 1785 Jean-Francois de Galaup de La Perouse was sent by King Louis XVI to chart the globe and map lands that had eluded English explorer Captain James Cook. But the survival story of an Indian sailor, Shaik Jumaul, hints at a bloodier end for La Perouse and his crew - some 2,500 kilometres (1,500 miles) back towards Australia. A memorial to La Perouse in Sydney. La Perouse arrived in Botany Bay outside Sydney days after it was claimed for the British by Arthur Phillip in 1788.

Source: The Local August 31, 2017 07:52 UTC