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....