Ferdinand Konščak (variously also Fernando Consag, Konsag, Konschak, etc.) (December 2, 1703 – September 10, 1759) was a
Jesuit missionary,
explorer, and
cartographer.
Education
Konščak was born in
Varaždin,
Croatia, and attended primary and secondary school in his native city. At sixteen he finished the expected grades and was admitted to the novitiate of the
Society of Jesus in
Trenčín,
Slovakia, where he stayed for two years. He was then sent to
Leoben in
Styria to study classics, stylistics, and rhetoric. Later he studied
philosophy in
Graz and in 1725–1726 he lectured on the Elements of
Grammar at the Jesuit Academy in
Zagreb in
Croatia. In 1726–1727 he taught classical studies at a secondary school in
Buda in
Hungary. In 1728 Konščak published a collection of poems titled
Nagadia versibus latinus, which is kept at
Budapest, Hungary. From 1727 to 1729 he studied
theology at the
University of Graz.
Missionary
In 1729, Konščak left for
Cádiz in
Spain, then went to
North America, where he was active as a
missionary on
New Spain's
Baja California peninsula (today part of
Mexico), from 1732 to the end of his life. His headquarters was at
Mission San Ignacio. From 1748 he acted as the superior of the mission and later, in 1758, inspector of all missions in Baja California. Konščak spoke various dialects of the local
Cochimí language. He directed and oversaw the building of new missions, aqueducts, embankments, drainage channels, and the first silver mines. He died at San Ignacio in 1759.
Expeditions
Konščak mounted three expeditions (in 1746, 1751 and 1753) systematically exploring previously unknown parts of the peninsula.
In June and July 1746 he was sent by sea to the head of the Gulf of California in order to investigate the disputed question of whether Baja California was an island. Although he closely followed the coast and reached the Colorado River, the issue continued to be in dispute for nearly another three decades
His second expedition comprised a journey by land across the peninsula to the Pacific coast. The third expedition went up the eastern side of the peninsula, to around 30 degrees of latitude near Bahía San Luis Gonzaga.
During his expeditions, Konščak recorded information on the peninsula's unknown topography, natural resources, and native inhabitants.
Maps and writings
On the basis of the data obtained, Konščak made a precise
map of Baja California (1748) and a map of the
Gulf of California (around 1750).
His maps of the regions explored were popular at the time frequently copied and used. Denis Diderot and D'Alembert used some of them within the French encyclopedia, where his name is cited as "P. Consaqua". Alexander von Humboldt used the maps in his work Carte generale... de la Nouvelle Espagne, (Paris, 1804). The same is the case with Arrowsmith in his book Map of America, published in London in 1805.
His diaries, after his death translated and reprinted into many languages, were published during his lifetime by Villa-Senor y Sanchez, Ortega-Balthasar, and Venegas-Buriel.
The 1761 copy of his manuscript on California is held in the British Museum. His Carta del P. Fernando Consag de la Compania de Jesus, Visistaro de las Misiones de Californias are kept at:
* British Museum in London
Library of Congress in Washington
John Carter Library in Providence, Rhode Island
Library of Pomona College in Pomona, California
The Huntington Library in San Marino, California
Seven copies of maps are published by Ernest J. Burrus.
Konščak's name has also been associated with two anonymous accounts of Baja California: Descripción compendiosa de lo descubierto y conocido de la California and Adiciones to the same. Homer Aschmann in 1966 and Damir Zorić in 2000 suggested that Konščak was the author of the second of these, while Miguel León-Portilla in 1988 suggested that he wrote the first.
Memories
There is an outcrop in the northern Gulf of California named
Roca Consag, located offshore near
San Felipe). Konščak discovered many water springs so that even today there are shops and other facilities in
California bearing his name like "Licores Konsag", (
Liquor Store and Market, "Konsaqua" (purified
water).
References
Aschmann, Homer. 1959. The Central Desert of Baja California: Demography and Ecology. Iberoamericana, Vol. 42. University of California, Berkeley.
Aschmann, Homer. 1966. The Natural and Human History of Baja California. Dawson's Book Shop, Los Angeles.
Burrus, Ernest J. 1967. La obra cartográfica de la Provincia Mexicana de la Compañía de Jesús, 1567–1967. J. Porrúa Turanzas, Madrid.
Barco, Miguel del. 1988. Historia natural y crónica de la antigua California. Edited by Miguel León-Portilla. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.
Consag, Ferdinand. 1985. Descripción compendiosa de lo descubierto y conocido de la California, 1746. Edited by Catalina Velázquez Morales. Centro de Investigaciones Históricas UNAM-UABC, Mexicali, Mexico.
Dunne, Peter Masten. 1952. Black Robes in Lower California. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Krmpotic, M. D. 1923. The Life and Works of the Reverend Ferdinand Konschak S.J. Stratford, Boston.
Lazcano Sahagún, Carlos. 2001. Fernando Consag: textos y testimonios. Fundación Barco, Ensenada, Mexico.
Ortega, José de. 1944. Apostólicos afanes de la Compañía de Jesús en su provincia de México. Luis Alvarez y Alvarez de la Cadena, Mexico City.
Venegas, Miguel. 1757. Noticia de la California y de su conquista temporal, y espíritual hasta el tiempo presente. 3 vols. M. Fernández, Madrid.
Zevallos, Francisco. 1968. The Apostolic Life of Fernando Consag, Explorer of Lower California. Edited by Manuel P. Servin. Dawson's Book Shop, Los Angeles.
Zorić, Damir. 2000. Misionar i kultura drugih: etnologijska istraživanja Ferdinanda Konšćaka (1703–1759) u donjoj Kaliforniji. HKD Napredak, Sarajevo, Bosnia.
External links
Croatian Cartographers
Category:1703 births
Category:1759 deaths
Category:University of Graz alumni
Category:Croatian explorers
Category:Explorers of North America
Category:Croatian Jesuits
Category:History of Baja California
Category:Croatian Christian missionaries
Category:Christian missionaries in Mexico
Category:Burials in Mexico
Category:Gulf of California
