KONSCAK, Ferdinand (Consag), (December 2, 1703, Varazdin - September 10, 1759, San Ignacio, Baja California), missionary, explorer, cartographer. He attended primary and secondary school in Varazdin. At the age of sixteen he finished the sixth grade and was admitted to the novitiate of the Society of Jesus in Trencin, Slovakia where he stayed for two years and then was sent to Leoben in Styria to study classics, stylistics and rhetoric. After that he studied philosophy in Graz for three years. In 1725/26 he held lectures within the course Elements of Grammar at the Jesuit Academy in Zagreb and in 1726/27 lectured in "humaniora studia", i.e. classical studies at a general secondary school in Budim, Hungary. In 1728 he published the collection of poems titled Nagadia versibus latinus, which is kept in a Budapest library. From 1727 to 1729 he studied theological studies at the University of Graz, in 1729 went to Cadiz, Spain, and then to America where he was active as a missionary in Lower California (Mexico), primarily in San Ignacio, from 1732 to death. From 1748 he acted as superior of the mission where he built a church, and in 1748 and 1758 he was inspector of all missions in California. On three expeditions that he mounted (in 1746, 1751 and 1753) Konscak systematically explored the unknown areas of the peninsula. By the first expedition, down to the mouth of the Rio Colorado, Konscak proved that Lower California is not an island, but a peninsula and thus resolved a more than two centuries old dilemma. On the basis of the data obtained by the expedition he made a precise map of Lower California (1748) and a map of the Bay of California (around 1750). The second expedition comprised a journey by land across the peninsula to the Pacific and across the shore to the north, while the third one comprised a journey through the interior parts of the peninsula and to the north up to the 30th degree of northern latitude. On his expeditions he noted down the data concerning the terrain, natural resources and native inhabitants. Furthermore, Konsćak founded new missions, built aqueducts, embankments, drainage channels and took part in the opening of the first silver mines on the peninsula. Published during his lifetime, his expedition diaries were translated into several languages and reprinted. Moreover, his maps of the peninsulas and bays were quite popular in the period and frequently copied. An archipelago at the north of the Bay of California was named Consag Rocas after him.
Map Seňo de California from 1746 by Ferdinand Konscak


Map California per P. Ferdinandum Con(sak) S.I. et per alios by Ferdinand Konscak