KELIGIOUS INTOLEEANCE. 257 



Behold a flower, whose splendoi' undefiled 



May yet thy darkened people cheer and save. 

 Its starry rays are lighted from above, 

 And, in its heart, the crimson Cross of Love." * 



We feel impelled, in this connection, to s])eak of the 

 intolerant spirit of Roman Catholicism, which pei-vades 

 and animates the rejiublics of South America — republics, 

 yet often suppressing liberty of conscience. Prof. Orton, 

 before the open grave of Colonel Staunton, around which 

 were gathered the remaining members of the expedition, 

 and a few friends, residents of Quito, spoke the following 

 words : " Yonder city of Quito has stood for three hundred 

 years, but has never seen such a day as this — a Protestant 

 burial in a Protestant burial-ground." The import of this 

 remark will be understood when we observe that the 

 Ecuadorian Government has, under ecclesiastical influence, 

 occupied so illiberal a position as virtually to exclude all 

 but the Catholic faith, refusing even to enclose a burial- 

 place for Protestant foreigners who might die within the 

 country. But our late minister to Quito, Hon. W. T. 

 Coggeshall, supported by protestations from our govern- 

 ment, succeeded in inducing the Quitonian authorities to 

 set apart the little cemetery to which we have alluded, 

 and that was to be devoted to the use of the Protestant 

 residents of Quito. Just a few days before the death of 

 our friend, the cemetery was completed, and his was the 

 first " Protestant burial in a Protestant burial-ground "' in 

 the Catholic city of Quito. 



That day inaugurated a new era for Ecuador. It 

 marked the first step taken in abandonment of that blind 

 and suicidal policy which has so long hermetically sealed 

 her against the entrance of that foreign element which 



* These beautiful lines were written by a friend of Colonel Staunton, 

 upon the receipt of the intelligence of his death and burial at Quito. 

 They accompany a little volume in memoriam of the artist. 



