EARLIEST KNOWN (?) COVER WITH POSTAL MARKS - PLYMOUTH SHIP L...

Hammer

£750

EARLIEST KNOWN (?) COVER WITH POSTAL MARKS - PLYMOUTH SHIP LETTER REF. FRENCHMEN EATEN BY CANNIBALS, ETC.; Fine 26 June 1856 E from New Caledonia (presumably from Noumea) to Brest in France via Sydney & G.B. with boxed "GB/1F60c" and fine Sydney handstruck "3" on the front, charged "8"(decimes) with backstamps of Sydney (15? Nov.), "PLYMOUTH/SHIP LETTER" (blue cds; 28 Feb. 1857), London & Brest. The contents (sadly incomplete but clearly written from New Caledonia in French by a missionary, include (translated); "...Someone shouts 'Ship in sight'. Back soon.... It is indeed a vessel which comes to tell me that 7 Frenchmen have been eaten by the natives of a coastal tribe (Ouailou) and that a warship, La Bayonnaise, should be going[?] from Noumea to Balade [small village on the NE tip of the island at the opposite end from Noumea] to avenge this atrocity." Believed to be the earliest known cover from New Caledonia with postal markings, and with graphic historical contents regarding continuing cannibal activities. [Ex Eastgate.]Cross Reference: SHIP LETTERS, NEW SOUTH WALES, FRANCE