The party left Texas on the 18th of May, and on the 27th reached New Orleans, which was then oppressively hot and nearly deserted. Here Audubon's collections and equipment were packed to be sent north; his dog was given to his brother-in-law, William Bakewell, and on the last day of the month the party began to retrace their steps of the previous March. After more hard traveling by car, coach and railroad, Charleston was reached in eight and a half days, on June 10, 1837. Edward Harris, who ascended the Mississippi from New Orleans for the purpose of making further collections, later rejoined the party at Bachman's home in Charleston. Audubon said that he lost twelve pounds in weight during this journey, which proved exceedingly trying, and the hardships encountered were hardly commensurate with the returns in bird and animal lore; yet Audubon was by no means dissatisfied at the results, as shown by the following account which he gave Thomas Brewer two days after his return:[144]
The weather during the principal portion of our absence was unusually cold, even for the season, and this gave us, perhaps, the very best opportunities ever afforded to any student of nature to observe the inward migrations of myriads of the birds that visit us from the south and west when the imperative laws of nature force them from their winter retreats towards other countries to multiply. To tell you all regarding this would be more by a thousand times than can be given in a letter written in haste, and I will therefore at once touch the spring with whose sound you are most in harmony. We procured many eggs for you—ay, a great number—and as soon as we reach New York I will make up a large box, and take it to you myself.... One thing that will interest you most, as it did me, is that we found west of the Mississippi many species of ducks breeding as contented as if in latitude 68° north. There is, after all, nothing like seeing things or countries to enable one to judge of their peculiarities, and I now feel satisfied that through the want of these means many erroneous notions remain in scientific works that can not otherwise be eradicated. We found not one new species, but the mass of observations that we have gathered connected with the ornithology of our country, has, I think, never been surpassed. I feel myself now tolerably competent to give an essay on the geographical distribution of the feathered tribes of our dear country, and I promise that I will do so, with naught but facts and notes made on the very spot, and at the fitting time.
Maria Rebecca Bachman, eldest of the nine Bachman children, was married at this time to John Woodhouse Audubon, and the entire party started north before the end of June. They went by steamer to Norfolk, and thence to Washington, where Audubon presented his letters to President Van Buren and tendered his thanks in person to the various officers of the Government and friends who had aided his expedition; they passed rapidly through Baltimore and Philadelphia, to New York, where Audubon remained a fortnight, while his son and daughter-in-law were enjoying a honeymoon at Niagara Falls. All sailed from New York on the packet England, and landed at Liverpool on the 2d of August. Five days later the family was united in London.
CHAPTER XXXII
AUDUBON'S GREATEST TRIUMPH
Extension of his work—Financial panic and revolt of patrons—New western collections—His "Book of Nature" completed—Work on the letterpress in Edinburgh—Vacation in the Highlands—Commissions to Harris—Parting address to the reader—Dissolution of the Havell engraving establishment—The residuum of The Birds of America—Robert Havell, engraver, and his family—Lizars' first edition and the Havell reissues of plates—Brief manual for collectors—Appreciations—Total edition of The Birds of America—Past and present prices—The Rothschild incident.
After Audubon's return to England in the summer of 1837, the completion of his magnum opus occupied but two years. Certain now of the ultimate success which would crown his efforts, he worked with a furious ardor, determined not only to execute his original plans, but to extend them, if necessary, to include every bird which had been discovered in America, or, at least, in the United States.
Audubon wrote Thomas Brewer in September that, for some unexplained cause, a large part of his collections made in Texas had probably been lost; when writing on October 29, the box containing all the eggs collected on the Gulf of Mexico had not come to hand. He continued:[145]
I authorize you to offer and to pay as much as five dollars for an old raven, in the flesh, and perfect as far as internals are concerned. European writers who a few years since were all agog to prove that our apparently analogous species were identical with those of Europe have suddenly "faced about," and pronounce our birds to be quite distinct species, and of course now say that our raven is indeed our raven! and all this because I proved that the Corvus corone of Europe existed not in America. All this induces the present natural student of nature to have his eyes and all his senses fully open, and to see into things further than we can into grindstones....
Charles Bonaparte, who has just this moment left me, has kindly proffered me his new North American species, and I hope to figure them all, thereby rendering my work the more complete, if not quite perfect, as far as truly well-known species are now thought to exist in the limits of our country, or indeed those of North America.