MEASURES:

In this narrative¹, 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 longitudes² mentioned in the text refer always to the meridian³ of the Observatory⁴ of Paris.

The real is about 6 1/2 English pence.

The agrarian⁵ 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 annually⁶, 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.

1 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

2 longitudes   

经度

参考例句：

• Nothing makes earth seem so to have friends at a distance; they make latitudes and longitudes. 没有什么比得上有朋在远方更使地球显得如此巨大，他们构成了纬度和经度。

3 meridian   

adj.子午线的；全盛期的

参考例句：

• All places on the same meridian have the same longitude.在同一子午线上的地方都有相同的经度。
• He is now at the meridian of his intellectual power.他现在正值智力全盛期。

4 observatory   

n.天文台，气象台，瞭望台，观测台

参考例句：

• Guy's house was close to the observatory.盖伊的房子离天文台很近。
• Officials from Greenwich Observatory have the clock checked twice a day.格林威治天文台的职员们每天对大钟检查两次。

5 agrarian   

adj.土地的，农村的，农业的

参考例句：

• People are leaving an agrarian way of life to go to the city.人们正在放弃农业生活方式而转向城市。
• This was a feature of agrarian development in Britain.这是大不列颠土地所有制发展的一个特征。

6 annually   

adv.一年一次，每年

参考例句：

• Many migratory birds visit this lake annually.许多候鸟每年到这个湖上作短期逗留。
• They celebrate their wedding anniversary annually.他们每年庆祝一番结婚纪念日。