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Dragutin Lerman
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As an explorer,
Dragutin Lerman (1863-1918) was a member of
Stanley's expedition to Congo (Zaire), and a
commissary (Commissaire General) of the Belgian
government in Congo. By the end of his career
the Belgian king Leopold conferred the knighthood
of Lion's order on him. And the famous Stanley
wrote: "The Croat is energetic, cautious,
in high spirits..." It is interesting that
in 1882 Lerman discovered huge waterfalls on
the river of Kwil, which he named the Zrinski
Waterfalls (Zrinski chutes), in honour of a
famous Croatian family of rulers. He donated
about 500 artifacts related to various traditional
African cultures to the Ethnographic museum
in Zagreb.
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Stjepan Mlakic |
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Stjepan Mlakic
(1844-?) Bosnian Croat born in Fojnica, a missionary
in Africa among the tribes of Shiluks and Nuers
in Sudan, like his colleague Kohnen. Very educated,
besides his native Croatian he spoke German,
Italian, English and Arabian, to which he added
the language of Nilot tribe of Nuers. His letters
to his brother (also a priest) in Bosnia witness
about his very close contacts with Africans.
It is worth to note his discovery that in Egypt,
near the town of Korsko, there is the village
of Ibrim, where used to live Bosnian Muslims
(!) inhabited there by a Turkish sultan. He
donated a rich collection of artifacts of African
culture to the Zagreb Ethnographic museum. |
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Brothers Mirko and Stevo Seljan |
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Brothers
Mirko (Karlovac 1871-Peru, 1913) and Stevo Seljan
(Karlovac 1876-Ouro Preto, Brazil 1936) spent
several years in Ethiopia carrying out geomorphological,
climatological and ethnographic investigations.
They occupied an important position at the court
of Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II. Later they
went to South America, where they founded the
society La Mission Cientifica Croata Mirko y
Stevo Seljan and organized some expeditions,
especially in Peru, Chile and Brazil (in the
region of the Amazon).
Their most important book is Mirko and Stevo
Seljan, El Salto del Guayra, 1905, Buenos Aires.
Origianlly written in Croatian, so that it could
be printed in the United Kingdom of Croatia,
Slavonia, and Dalmatia, it was translated already
in 1905 into French. In 1913 Stevo Seljan was
elected as a honorary member of the Mexican
Geographical Socitey. |
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Ferdinand Konscak |
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Quite a number
of Croats took part in the first Christian Missions,
especially in South and North America and Asia.
Ferdinand Konscak, or Fernardo Consag (born
in Varazdin, 1703-1757), was a Jesuit and a
Croatian missionary in North America. In 1752
he discovered that Baja California was not an
island, as it had been believed until then,
but a peninsula. There is a collection of rocky
islets on the north of the Californian bay named
in his honour as the Consag Rocks (Consag Rocas,
or Roca de Consag, near San Felipe).
Denis Diderot and D'Alambert used some of his
maps for the French Encyclopedia, see "Encyclopedie",
Supplement 5 Carte (Paris 1755-1780), where
his name is cited as P. Consaque. Alexander
Humbolt used his maps for his "Carte generale...
de la Nouvelle Espagne", Paris, 1804, and
also Arrowsmith in his "Map of America",
London 1805. Konscak spoke various dialects
of local Indians, in particular a very difficult
dialect of Cochinin Indians. He described a
sort of boomerang that Indians used for hunting
rabbits. His diaries were printed already during
his lifetime (published by Villa-Senor y Sanchez,
Ortega-Balthasar and Venegas-Buriel), and after
his death translated into many languages. The
1761 copy of Konscak's manuscript about California
is held in The British Museum. His work Carta
del P. Fernando Consag de la Compania de Jesus,
Visistaro de las Misiones de Californias (43
pages) is kept in the British Museum in London,
Library of Congress Harper in Washington, John
Carter Library in Providence, Library of Pomona
College in Pomona, Henry E. Huntington Library
in San Marino. His life is described by outstanding
american historian Peter Masten Dunne in his
monograph Black Robes in Lower California, Los
Angeles, 1952. Seven copies of his maps are
published by Ernest J. Burrus in his work La
obra cartografica, Madrid, 1967. In his 2000
monograph Zoric proved that Konscak was the
author of important work Addiciones a las noticias
contemidas en la Description compnediosa de
lo descuviert y conocido de la California. Since
Konscak discovered many springs of pouring water,
it is not surprising that even today there exist
shops and warehouses in California bearing his
name: "Licores Konsag", "Konsag
Liquor Store and Mini Market", "Konsaqua"
(agua purificada) etc. For many more details
see [Zoric] and [Gabric]. |
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