Ferdinand Konščak Fernando Consag | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Ferdinand Consag | |
| Born | 2 December 1703 |
| Died | 10 September 1759(1759-09-10) (aged 55) |
| Education | Society of Jesus inTrenčín,philosophy inGraz, Jesuit Academy inZagreb,theology at theUniversity of Graz. |
| Church | Mission San Ignacio,Catholic Church in Mexico |
| Ordained | ~1725 |
| Title | Jesuit priest |
Fernando Consag, known in his nativeCroatian asFerdinand Konščak (December 2, 1703 – September 10, 1759), was aCroatianJesuitmissionary,explorer andcartographer, who spent most of his life inMexico, inBaja California.
Consag was born inVaraždin, 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 theSociety of Jesus inTrencsén, Hungary (nowTrenčín,Slovakia), where he stayed for two years. He was then sent toLeoben inStyria to study classics, stylistics, and rhetoric. Later he studied philosophy inGraz, Austria and in 1725–1726 he lectured on the elements of grammar at the Jesuit Academy inZagreb in Croatia. In 1726–1727 he taught classical studies at a secondary school inBuda inHungary. In 1728 Consag published a collection of poems titledNagadia versibus latinus, which is kept atBudapest. From 1727 to 1729 he studiedtheology at theUniversity of Graz.
In 1729, Consag left forCádiz inSpain, then went toNorth America, where he was active as a missionary onNew Spain'sBaja California Peninsula (today part ofMexico), from 1732 to the end of his life. His headquarters was atMission San Ignacio. From 1748 he acted as the superior of the mission and later, in 1758, inspector of all missions in Baja California. Consag spoke various dialects of the localCochimí 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.
Consag 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 theGulf of California in order to investigate the disputed question of whetherBaja California was an island. Although he closely followed the coast and reached theColorado 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 western side of the peninsula, to around 30 degrees of latitude near Bahía San Luis Gonzaga.
During his expeditions, Consag recorded information on the peninsula's unknown topography, natural resources, and native inhabitants.
On the basis of the data obtained, Consag 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 andD'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 workCarte generale ... de la Nouvelle Espagne, (Paris, 1804). The same is the case with Arrowsmith in his bookMap 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-Señor y Sanchez, Ortega-Balthasar, andVenegas-Buriel.
The 1761 copy of hismanuscript on California is held in theBritish Museum. HisCarta del P. Fernando Consag de la Compañia de Jesus, Visitador de las Misiones de Californias are kept at:
Seven copies of maps are published by Ernest J. Burrus.
Consag's name has also been associated with two anonymous accounts of Baja California:Descripción compendiosa de lo descubierto y conocido de la California andAdiciones to the same. Homer Aschmann in 1966 and Damir Zorić in 2000 suggested that Consag was the author of the second of these, while Miguel León-Portilla in 1988 suggested that he wrote the first.
There is an outcrop in the northern Gulf of California namedRoca Consag, located offshore nearSan Felipe. Consag mapped manywater springs so that even today there are shops and other facilities inCalifornia bearing his name like "Licores Konsag", (Liquor Store and Market), "Konsaqua" (purifiedwater).
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