Falmouth India Letter, 1834

The wrapper below was sent to Rothschild's in London in 1834 from Batavia.  Batavia was an imperial Dutch port city that eventually, after two centuries of Dutch occupation, became the capital of the Dutch East Indies, and is now present-day Jakarta, Indonesia.

The letter had a framed "FALMOUTH / Ship Letter" applied in error, was overstruck with a framed "INDIA LETTER / FALMOUTH", and then had a second India Letter handstamp applied.  It arrived in London on 2nd October 1834.  The India Letter handstamp indicated that a reduced rate of postage applied compared to the standard ship letter rate.

The letter was sent via the Blair which arrived at Plymouth on 27th September 1834, having first dropped off its mail at Falmouth, common practice to hand over the mail quickly without navigating further up the Channel.