Miguel Costansó

Miguel Costansó (1741–1814), original name Miquel Constançó, was a Catalan engineer, cartographer and cosmographer. He joined the expedition of exploration of Alta California led by Gaspar de Portolá and Junípero Serra, serving aboard ship as cartographer and on land as engineer.

Costansó was born in Barcelona in 1741. After serving in the Spanish infantry in coastal Catalonia and Granada, he entered the corps of military engineers in 1762 with the rank of second lieutenant. In August 1764, along with six other military engineers, Costansó voyaged from Spain to Veracruz, Mexico (New Spain), where they formed a brigade. From 1764 to 1767, Costansó mapped the coast of the Gulf of Mexico from his base in Veracruz. Upon his own petition, he was selected to travel to Sonora as engineer for the expedition headed by brigadier Domingo Elizondo to suppress Indian rebels. He served about a year in that campaign, charting battle plans and taking topographic measurements used in later maps.

Summoned from Sonora by New Spain's visitador (inspector general) José de Gálvez, Costansó traveled south to San Blas in 1768 for a meeting to plan the upcoming Spanish land and sea expeditions to Alta California. Aiming to develop San Blas as a permanent settlement and supply base for the chain of Spanish presidios and Catholic missions projected for Alta California, Gálvez assigned Costansó to complete a set of maps and drawings of San Blas, for submission to viceroy Carlos Francisco de Croix in Mexico City.

Gálvez and Costansó then sailed across the Sea of Cortés to Baja California, landing in rundown mission fields vacated by recently expelled Jesuit priests. Gálvez sent Costansó to the area north of Cabo (cape) San Lucas, where he made scale drawings and plans of the cape, Bahía (bay) de La Paz, and Isla Cerralvo.

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