Rumsey Wing to Señor Francisco Javier Leon, August 12, 1873

Mr. Wing to Señor Leon.

Sir: On the 16th of last month William C. Doval, an American citizen resident in this country, died in one of the hospitals of this city. On the subsequent day he was buried in the Protestant cemetery. On the succeeding night the gate of the cemetery was forced, the grave of Mr. Doval opened, the clothing torn from his person, and his nude body left upon the ground.

In my absence, the American citizens in Quito offered a reward for the detection of the perpetrators of this foul act of desecration, of the publication of which I inclose a copy.

The body of Mr. Doval was again interred, and a second time was torn from its resting-place.

It is with the most painful sensations that I call the attention of your excellency to the fact that this is the third occurrence of the kind which I have laid before your excellency during my short official residence in this capital.

I am not disposed to believe that these outrages were performed by the common Indians of the country, as general report has it.

I need not assure your excellency of the intense feeling which will not only arise in my own country, hut throughout Europe, when a knowledge of these outrages upon the bodies of Protestants deceased in Ecuador becomes public.

I have been informed that certain clews had been placed in the hands of the police of this city, which, if intelligently and honestly followed up, would lead to the conviction of the guilty parties. I cannot learn, however, that any efficient steps have been taken to that end.

Moreover, I desire to add that the tombstone over the grave of Colonel Staunton, one of the most distinguished scientific men of the United States, was stolen from its pedestal upon the night of the second desecration of Mr. Doval’s grave.

I respectfully but decidedly request the co-operation of the Ecuadorian government in the detection of the parties implicated in these acts of infamy, and for the future I ask that some steps be taken to prevent a repetition thereof.

With assurances of my very distinguished consideration, I have, &c.,