Letter to a sailor aboard U.S. Frigate Sherromack, on station off the coast of Chile, via British packet from Panama to Valparaiso.
This letter was sent on 4 February 1858 in consular mail from Philadelphia, the sender having prepaid the U.S. 10-cent rate to Aspinwall plus 24 cents for British packet from Panama to Valparaiso. The Philadelphia post office credited 24 cents to Great Britain. The letter was conveyed from New York on 5 February aboard the U.S. Mail Steamship Company’s Moses Taylor, which departed New York on 5 February and arrived at Aspinwall on the 19th. After a trip across the isthmus by canoe and mule, on 22 February the letter was taken from Panama to Valparaiso by the Pacific Steam Navigation Company’s Valparaiso.