League

In English and American measure a league is a distance of 3 miles, or 15,840 feet, as the federal tables of units still list it. Used that way it describes how far apart places were.

In Spanish and Mexican Texas the word meant an area. A league, also called a sitio, was a square 5,000 varas on a side, granted for ranching. With the vara at 33 1/3 inches it came to about 4,428 acres; the Handbook of Texas gives 4,338 for the Spanish-era sitio, and because the vara's length varied, older figures differ slightly. Settlers in Stephen F. Austin's colony received leagues for ranching and labors for farming, and many received both.