These measurements were pivotal in order to assure that ships did not run aground, and they were also used as a navigational aid in order to determine locations along established shipping routes. Millimetersĭuring the Spanish colonial era, water depths were obtained using sounding leads while aboard ships. The table below converts modern metric measurements into the corresponding Spanish colonial measurements up to just over 1 pulgada. The Spanish pulgada, or inch, was 1/12 of a Spanish pie ( above), and was comprised of 16 Spanish lineas, and each linea was further subdivided into 12 puntos. The Spanish pie was comprised of 12 Spanish pulgadas, or inches, and was one third of a Spanish Vara, discussed above. The vara de Burgos upon which this measurement was based was only one of several in usage during the colonial era, however, and so a certain amount of variability is to be expected both regionally and chronologically. The Spanish vara was comprised of 3 Spanish pies, or feet, and was established as equivalent to 0.8359 meters upon the transition to the metric system during the 19th century. The longer legua común seems to have been used principally during the 16th century, while the shorter legua legal seems to have been in nearly universal usage in Florida during 17th and 18th centuries.įor more in-depth discussion of the variability in the Spanish league measurements during this period, see the following sources:Ĭhardon, Roland, "The Elusive Spanish League: A Problem of Measurement in Sixteenth-Century New Spain," The Hispanic American Historical Review 60(2): 294-302 (1980).Ĭhardon, Roland, "The Linear League in North America," Annals of the Association of American Geographers70(2): 129-153 (1980). The two most commonly-employed league distances used for terrestrial measurements in Spanish Florida were the legua legal, which measured 3 Spanish millas, or 5,000 varas (equaling 0.8359 meters) of 3 Spanish pies (equaling 0.2786 meters), and the legua común, which measured 4 Spanish millas, or 4,000 pasos of 5 Spanish pies. Spanish Leagues / Spanish Varas / Spanish Pies / Small-Scale Spanish Lengths / Spanish Nautical Depths / Spanish Arrobas The tables below are provided as quick-references for converting selected colonial measures (distance and weight/volume) into modern-day miles and kilometers, with values ranging from 1-100. ![]() ![]() Quick Conversion Tables for Basic Colonial Measures
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