in this narrative, as well as in the political essay on new spain, all the prices are reckoned in piastres, and silver reals (reales de plata). eight of these reals are equivalent to a piastre, or one hundred and five sous, french money (4 shillings 4 1/2 pence english). nouv. esp. volume 2 pages 519, 616 and 866.

the magnetic dip is always measured in this work, according to the centesimal division, if the contrary be not expressly mentioned.

one flasco contains 70 or 80 cubic inches, paris measure.

112 english pounds = 105 french pounds; and 160 spanish pounds = 93 french pounds.

an arpent des eaux et forets, or legal acre of france, of which 1. 95 = 1 hectare. it is about 1 1/4 acre english.

a tablon, equal to 1849 square toises, contains nearly an acre and one-fifth: a legal acre has 1344 square toises, and 1.95 legal acre is equal one hectare.

for the sake of accuracy, the french measures, as given by the author, and the indications of the centigrade thermometer, are retained in the translation. the following tables may, therefore, be found useful.

table of linear measure.

1 toise = 6 feet 4.73 inches.

1 foot = 12.78 inches.

1 metre = 3 feet 3.37 inches.

(transcriber’s note: the ‘toise’ was introduced by charlemagne in 790; it originally represented the distance between the fingertips of a man with outstretched arms, and is thus the same as the british ‘fathom’. during the founding of the metric system, less than 20 years before the date of this work, the ‘toise’ was assigned a value of 1.949 meters, or a little over two yards. the ‘foot’; actually the ‘french foot’, or ‘pied’, is defined as 1/6 of a ‘toise’, and is a little over an english foot.)

cent. fahr. cent. fahr. cent. fahr. cent. fahr.

100 212 65 149 30 86 -5 23

99 210.2 64 147.2 29 84.2 -6 21.2

98 208.4 63 145.4 28 82.4 -7 19.4

97 206.6 62 143.6 27 80.6 -8 17.6

96 204.8 61 141.8 26 78.8 -9 15.8

95 203 60 140 25 77 -10 14

94 201.2 59 138.2 24 75.2 -11 12.2

93 199.4 58 136.4 23 73.4 -12 10.4

92 197.6 57 134.6 22 71.6 -13 8.6

91 195.8 56 132.8 21 69.8 -14 6.8

90 194 55 131 20 68 -15 5

89 192.2 54 129.2 19 66.2 -16 3.2

88 190.4 53 127.4 18 64.4 -17 1.4

87 188.6 52 125.6 17 62.6 -18 -0.4

86 186.8 51 123.8 16 60.8 -19 -2.2

85 185 50 122 15 59 -20 -4

84 183.2 49 120.2 14 57.2 -21 -5.8

83 181.4 48 118.4 13 55.4 -22 -7.6

82 179.6 47 116.6 12 53.6 -23 -9.4

81 177.8 46 114.8 11 51.8 -24 -11.2

80 176 45 113 10 50 -25 -13

79 174.2 44 111.2 9 48.2 -26 -14.8

78 172.4 43 109.4 8 46.4 -27 -16.6

77 170.6 42 107.6 7 44.6 -28 -18.4

76 168.8 41 105.8 6 42.8 -29 -20.2

75 167 40 104 5 41 -30 -22

74 165.2 39 102.2 4 39.2 -31 -23.8

73 163.4 38 100.4 3 37.4 -32 -25.6

72 161.6 37 98.6 2 35.6 -33 -27.4

71 159.8 36 96.8 1 33.8 -34 -29.2

70 158 35 95 0 32 -35 -31

69 156.2 34 93.2 -1 30.2 -36 -32.8

68 154.4 33 91.4 -2 28.4 -37 -34.6

67 152.6 32 89.6 -3 26.6 -38 -36.4

66 150.8 31 87.8 -4 24.8 -39 -38.2

***

a tablon, equal to 1849 square toises, contains nearly an acre and one-fifth: a legal acre has 1344 square toises, and 1.95 legal acre is equal to one hectare.

a torta weighs three quarters of a pound, and three tortas cost generally in the province of caracas one silver rial, or one-eighth of a piastre.

it is sufficient to mention, that the cubic foot contains 2,985,984 cubic lines.

foot (old measure of france) about five feet three inches english measure.

***

the longitudes mentioned in the text refer always to the meridian of the observatory of paris.

the real is about 6 1/2 english pence.

the agrarian measure, called caballeria, is eighteen cordels, (each cordel includes twenty-four varas) or 432 square varas; consequently, as 1 vara = 0.835m., according to rodriguez, a caballeria is 186,624 square varas, or 130,118 square metres, or thirty-two and two-tenths english acres.

20 leagues to a degree.

5000 varas = 4150 metres.

3403 square toises = 1.29 hectare.

an acre = 4044 square metres.

five hundred acres = fifteen and a half caballerias.

sugar-houses are thought to be very considerable that yield 2000 cases annually, or 32,000 arrobas (nearly 368,000 kilogrammes.)

an arroba of 25 spanish pounds = 11.49 kilogrammes.

a quintal = 45.97 kilogrammes.

a tarea of wood = one hundred and sixty cubic feet.