On October 8, Maximilian's party left Pittsburgh by stage for Wheeling, now in West Virginia. The next day they boarded an Ohio steamer there and four days later arrived at Cincinnati. The presence of cholera in the area discouraged plans for a visit into the city, and Maximilian regretted that he would not have the opportunity of seeing its museum of natural history. Bodmer's shipboard study of the Ohio River near Cincinnati, identified by a brief inscription at lower right, was made on the morning of their arrival.