The presentation was made at a special dinner given in Maury’s honor at Willis’s Rooms in London on June 5, 1866. Sir John Pakington, First Lord of the Admiralty, presided, and there were present the Danish, Mexican, and Argentine ministers, six British admirals, high officers of the Swedish and Russian navies, General Beauregard of the Confederate army, Professor Tyndall, and many of Maury’s personal friends like John Laird, Commodore Jansen, and Dr. Tremlett, who was Honorary Secretary of the Testimonial Fund. The purse containing the 3000 guineas was presented in a handsome silver-gilt casket, and was accompanied by the following testimonial: “We the undersigned beg your acceptance of the accompanying purse of Three Thousand Guineas in appreciation and acknowledgment of the eminent and disinterested services which through years of untiring zeal in the cause of science you have rendered to the maritime nations of the world. Receive from us this public testimony of our regard with every wish for your future welfare and happiness”.[22] In July, 1866, Maury was engaged by Richardson and Company, a publishing house of New York City, to write a series of geographies for the public schools. It was agreed to make the series embrace “First Lessons in Geography”, “Intermediate Geography”, “Manual of Geography”, “Academic Geography”, and “Physical Geography”. Maury was to be paid $10,000, $1000 for each volume on the receipt of the manuscript and $1000 more for each volume three months after publication. He was to receive also $600 for revising each book, for five successive years. The following year an additional agreement was signed for the publishing of “Practical Astronomy for Schools”, Maury to receive $1500 after the delivery of the manuscript and $1500 three months after its publication. In August, 1866 Maury wrote, “I am hard at work on Geography No. I, ‘Brave’ drawing the maps. Well, I could not wind up my career more usefully—and usefulness is both honor and glory—than by helping to shape the character and mould the destinies of the rising generations”. Most of the work on these school books was completed before he left England to return to Virginia in the summer of 1868, but at that time only the first two of the series; namely, “First Lessons in Geography” and “The World We Live In”, which was the “Intermediate Geography” of the contract, had been published. From the very beginning their reception in the United States was very flattering, and Maury was delighted with his success.