"The area of a pueblo, under Spanish rule, was four square leagues, or about 17,770 acres. The pueblo lands were divided into _solares_ (house lots), _suertes_[5] (fields for planting), _dehesas_ (outside pasture lands), _ejidos_ (commons), _propios_ (lands rented or leased), _realengas_ (royal lands)." [5] _Suerte_. This is colloquial, it really means "chance" or "haphazard." In other words, it was the piece of ground that fell to the settler by "lot." On the arrival of the colonists in San Gabriel from Loreto on the 18th of August, 1781, Governor Neve issued instructions for founding Los Angeles on the 26th. The first requirement was to select a site for a dam, to provide water for domestic and irrigation purposes. Then to locate the plaza and the homes and fields of the colonists. Says Professor Guinn: "The old plaza was a parallelogram too varas[6] in length by 75 in breadth. It was laid out with its corners facing the cardinal points of the compass, and with its streets running at right angles to each of its four sides, so that no street would be swept by the wind. Two streets, each 10 varas wide, opened out on the longer sides, and three on each of the shorter sides. Upon three sides of the plaza were the house lots, 20 by 40 varas each, fronting on the square. One-half the remaining side was reserved for a guard-house, a town-house, and a public granary. Around the embryo town, a few years later, was built an adobe wall--not so much, perhaps, for protection from foreign invasion as from domestic intrusion. It was easier to wall in the town than to fence the cattle and goats that pastured outside." [6] A vara is the Spanish yard of 33 inches. The government supplied each colonist with a pair each of oxen, mules, mares, sheep, goats, and cows, one calf, a burro, a horse, and the branding-irons which distinguished his animals from those of the other settlers. There were also certain tools furnished for the colony as a whole. On the 14th of September of the same year the plaza was solemnly dedicated. A father from the San Gabriel Mission recited mass, a procession circled the plaza, bearing the cross, the standard of Spain, and an image of "Our Lady," after which salvos of musketry were fired and general rejoicings indulged in. Of course the plaza was blessed, and we are even told that Governor Neve made a speech.