AUDUBON'S GREATEST TRIUMPH 191 



by the "idle rascals" who were employed in filling orders 

 in his shop, and who had so sadly mixed matters that 

 no less than twelve numbers of his Birds had come back 

 to him, some of them containing one, three, and five 

 copies of the same plate, instead of a "Number," and 

 mixtures of the most incongruous sort; he thought that 

 "a clever young man as a clerk was worth a hundred 

 thick heads," and begged Havell again to send him "a 

 correct list of what he shipped to America on his ac- 

 count, and that list not made by any other person than 

 either himself or Mrs. Havell." His next injunction, 

 on May 4, was to insure his copper-plates of The Birds 

 of America for £5,000, and to send them to either Vic- 

 tor Audubon or Mr. N. Berthoud, Number 2 Hanover 

 Street, New York. At that moment Audubon was 

 planning to return to America with his family by the 

 Great Western on July 6. In writing again on June 

 30, he remarked that he was not at all certain that Ha- 

 vell, who was then visiting at his native Reading, in 

 Berkshire, would really sail on the 25th of July, since 

 he had already postponed the journey so many times; 

 he added that it would not even surprise him if his work 

 on the Quadrupeds of America might not be out before 

 they could fish and shoot together in his "native land." 

 Havell eventually came to America with his wife 

 and daughter on the ship Wellington, in September, 

 1839; they landed at New York after the 15th of that 

 month, and for a time were the guests of the Audubons 

 at Number 86 White Street. His brother, Henry, 13 

 who visited the United States in 1829, returned at 

 about this time and established a print shop in Broad- 

 way, New York, but according to Robert's biographer, 



13 Henry Augustus Havell (1803-1840), painter, engraver, and at one 

 time assistant to his elder brother, Robert Havell, Junior. 



