Consag Rocks

KONSCAK, FERDINAND California is not an Island: Spain allowed foreign missionaries in the New World after 1644. Prior to that only Spanish missionaries were permitted in Spanish America. The Jesuit order pioneered the Southwest and California. The Pole, Bohemian, Moravian, Austrian and Croatian priests contributed to the history of the Southwest and California. It was not a pure Spanish-Italian contribution. A few of the Priests in this area were Bischoff, Tirsch, Link, Inamma, Tempis, Porohradiski, Bac, Sterkianowski and Ratkay. Baron Ivan Ratkay, massacred by the Indians of the Southwest in the 1600's was mistakenly called a Hungarian. He was born of a Croatian noble family.

Father Consag

Often spelled Konscak, Konsag and Konschak, was born in the city of Varazdin, Croatia, in 1703. He left Spain for Cuba in 1730, and three years later he arrived in California. He made many trips about the peninsula, seeking desirable places where missions might he established. It is said that while he was on these journeys he carried only a "walking stick and a piece of canvas." After serving on the peninsula for twenty-eight years, he died at the Mission of Bajorca in 1759.

Famous Expedition

In 1744 the Spanish king, Philip V, decreed that the missions in lower California be carried north in order to meet those of Sonora. The Jesuit Provincial, Father Cristobal de Escobar y Llamas, sent a suggestion to King Ferdinand VI that there be issued a royal order to explore the northern reaches of California in order to verify whether the place be an island or a peninsula. The immediate effect of this correspondence was the famous exploring expedition of Fernando Consag.

Consag Rocks

Consag Rocks at the northern part of the gulf bear the explorer's name, but this hazardous voyage was not the Croatian priest's only claim to fame. Five years later he made a notable journey inland of which he left posterity a minute account, likewise in the form of a diary. This trek overland and over the mountains to the Pacific was undertaken at the request of Balthasar, now provincial. Consag says he was delayed by epidemics, lack of provisions, and other occupations placed upon him by his Superiors. Finally this land expedition started from a spot which Consag had formerly visited and which he had judged, because of a stream, suitable for a mission. The place lay some leagues north of Mission San Ignacio and he called it La Piadad. His second diary begins thus-. "From this post of La Piadad, on May 22, 1751, under the patronage of Our Lady of Loreto, to whose marvelous protection is owed the conversion of California, we launched the expedition early in the after noon. There were five soldiers and a sufficient number of Indians on foot."The leader of the soldiers was Don Fernando do Rivera Y Moncada, later governor of Alta California. Modern Californians will be interested in an entry for June 4, 1751, when the party was approaching the Pacific Coast: "The fogs, at least at this time of the year, are dense, and because of this and the wind which constantly blows from the ocean, the nights and the mornings are very cold."

Untimely Death

Although Father Consag did not reach San Diego or Los Angeles, he pointed the way with his maps and explorations. It was only the the grace of God, his untimely death in 1759, and the order of Jesuit expulsion in 1767 by King Charles 111, that kept Father Consag from the position in history that was granted to Father Junipero Serra. Rivera, who had worked under Father Consag in earlier expeditions, was to lead the first explorations in upper California ten years after his death. This great Croatian explorer who was superior of all the missions of California, and who also verified that California was not an island, has been forgotten by California historians.

This Croatian priest, unknown to Croatian-Americans, is a part of Southern California. No street, town, road or place bears his name in remembrance, but perhaps the local Croatian Colony of Los Angeles will someday erect a statue in his honor. (Zevallos 1968)