The earliest endorsement is 30 May 1878 from Esquimalt in British Columbia. On the other side of the envelop there is another endorsement from Victoria in British Columbia - the state capital which is about five miles from Esquimalt. This also appears to have been endorsed on 30 May, The envelop then travelled to Hamilton Ontario (endorsed June 10) and then to Sandwich in Kent in the united kingdom, where it arrived on June 24.
A look at the envelop reveals why the letter was sent. The envelop has the badge of HMS Opal - a corvette ( a type of small fighting ship) which had both sails and steam power. In 1876 the boat hit a rock in the Strait of Magellan - in chile and was taken to Esquimalt for repairs. It was not until 1880 that she got back to Britain. So the crew would have had plenty of leisure to write letters.
The letter is addressed to Miss Henderson at Upton House. In fact, there were two young ladies in the family - but this is most likely to be Flora Henderson. who would have been in her early twenties when the letter was sent. Flora had four brothers, all of whom were officers in the Royal Navy. So it seems probable that the letter was sent by a very bored brother to his sister back in Kent. But that’s the charm of postal history - a few marks on a piece of paper, can tell a life story. The pictures below, incidentally, show the corvette Opal and three of the brothers on one of the rare occasions when they were in the same port.
see also -Love and romance and the lure of postal history
A glimpse into the life of Haille Selassie