No. 205.

                       Mr. Wing to Mr. Fish.
No. 342.]                         UNITED STATES LEGATION,
       Quito, Ecuador, November 12, 1873. (Received December 18.)
  Sin: I have the honor to inform the Department that on Monday
night last, at 11 o'clock, this city was shaken by a severe earthquake,
which, in point of duration and force, surpassed any other since the-
fearful casualty of 1868. Such abject terror as was displayed by a
large portion of the populace was incomprehensible, except as evincing
a bitter and bloody experience in the past. Considerable property was
destroyed, and it is feared that the beautiful, but already desolated,
province of Imbabura has been again subjected to waste and havoc.
All the bells in the city rang lustily with the shock.
  As I am still very lame from my tedious and painful attack of inflam-
matory rheumatism, I was unable to leave my bed, though my house
rocked like a vessel on a stormy sea, and. I never remember to have
been more vividly interested in getting into the open air.
  I believe, from what I am informed, that by far the greater portion of
the inhabitants spent the night in the streets and plazas, many of thein
with prayers and lamentations.
  The movement of an earthquake is certainly a most unpleasant sen-
sation, and as renewed shocks are hourly expected, there may be soon
a repetition of the untold horrors of Iberra and Otovalo, so wofully
smitten five years ago.
      I have, &c.,
                                               RUTASEY WI-NG. :



                              No. 206.

                       Mfr. Wing to Mr. Fish.
No. 347.]                         UNITED STATES LEGATION,
         Quito, Ecuador, December 2, 1873. (Received December 30.)
  SIR: Since the reception of dispatch No. 126 from the Department,
I have had an interview with Minister Leon, who stated to me that
thus far all efforts to discover the perpetrators of the outrage upon the
Protestant cemetery near this city had proved unavailing.
  He added that the search was still being prosecuted, and promised
that the severest penalties would be inflicted upon the miscreants, in
case of their eventual capture.
       I have, &c.,
                                                RUMSEY WING.


                              No. 207.

                       Mr. Wing to Mr. Fish.
No. 352.]                         UINITED STATES LEGATION,
         Quito, Ecuador, December 6, 1873. (Received December 30.)
   Sin- Referring to my dispatch No. 349, I have the honor to state
that having made known the conntets of the communication of Sec.


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.ECUADOR.