388


FOREIGN RELATIONS.


  On reference to the archives of this legation, I find that in the first
part of the month
of September, 1870, (while I was making preparations for the disinterment
of the body
of my predecessor, Mr. Coggeshall,) I was informed thatprevious to my arrival
at this
capital the grave of Colonel Phineas E. Staunton had been violated, and that
his body
had been reinterred by certain of the police authorities, and that Mr. Coggeshall's
grave had also been opened.
   I was in the very act of addressing an official note to your excellency
on the subject
 when your excellency did me the honor to pay me a visit at the office of
my legation,
 in reference to the arrangements for the transmission of Mr. Coggeshall's
body to Guaya-
 quil. I then and there verbally made known to your excellency, through the
agency
 of a distinguished gentleman now in Quito what I had learned in regard to
the pro-
 fanation of the graves of Mr. Coggeshail and Colonel Staunton. Your excellency
im-
 mediately promised to give stringent orders to the police authorities to
do all in their
 power to ferret out the perpetrators thereof.
 I was afterward the recipient of a note from your excellency of date September
 10, 1870, in which I was informed that your excellency had hastened to put
a knowl-
 edge of the outrage before the superintendent of police, in order that he
might take
 the proper steps in relation thereto.
 Subsequently, I informed your excellency, that upon the disinterment of
the body
 of Mr. Coggeshall, it was ascertained that his wooden coffin had likewise
been broken
 open, and that a portion of the interior metal coffin had been cut off and
taken away,
 whilst the remains of the coffins, with the body inclosed, had been carelessly
thrown
 back into the grave, without any regard to position whatever.
 In this matter I spoke advisedly, as I, in common with the English minister
and a
 number of other foreign gentlemen, was present on the occasion.
 Feeling assured that your excellency upon reflection will recall these facts,
and
 regretting that I am compelled to refer to matters so unpleasant of themselves,
      I have, &c.,
                 ,                                              RUMSEY WING.

  His Excellency Seilor FRANCISCO JAVIER LEON,
                  Minister for Foreign Affairs, 4fc.,e c., 4 c.



                          [Inclosure 8 in No. 326.-Translation.]

                             -Seiior Leon to Mr. Wing.

                             FOREIGN "OFFICE OF ECUADOR, QUITO, August
21, 1873.
  I have had the honor to receive your excellency's esteemed communication
of yes-
terday, and in reply, I am happy to inform your excellency that when possible
I shall
not fail to forward to your excellency everything that is discovered about
the author
or authors of the disinterment of the body of Mr. Doval, as the police authorities
will
continue their investigations.
  I have as much interest as your excellency in the detection of this crime.
      With assurances, &c.,
                                                   FRANCISCO JAVIER LEON.



                          [Inclosure 10 in No. 326.-Translation.]

                             Sefior Leon to Mr. WZing.

                             FOREIGN OFFICE OF ECUADOR, QUITO, August 22,
1873.
  The undersigned, minister of foreign affairs of Ecuador, has the honor
to address
his excellency, the minister resident of the United States of America, with
the object
of rectifying the idea contained in his communication of the 19th of the
present
month, as he did not remember at the time that other acts of violation of
graves had
occurred; but now having inspected the archives of this department, he has
seen that
in effect your excellency addressed the undersigned, notifying him that an
act of this
nature had occurred in the grave of Mr. Coggeshall, and that in consequence
thereof
the government of the undersigned used every measure in its power to discover
and
punish the culprits, as was communicated to your excellency on September
10, 1873.
  Thus rectifying the idea alluded to, I am, &c.,
                                                   FRANCISCO JAVIER LEON.