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Corsairs attacked la Chua while Menendez Marquez was away

Source: The Menendez Marquez Cattle Barony at La Chua and the Determinants of Economic Expansion in Seventeenth-Century Florida #163

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Governor Juan MArquez Cabrera (1680-1687) tried to close off the river with a barricade of trees and brush, but the Suwannee's strong current washed the debris away. (Governor Marquez Cabrera, July 16, 1682; Thos Menendez Marquez [1682]; Auto on the pirates, July 1682.) This was not the only waterway near the ranch, anyway. Eligio de la Puente later thought that la Chua's outlet to Havana had been the Amajuro. The next time that corsairs attacked la Chua, in 1684, they traveled by way of the Amajuro. (Governor Mirquez Cabrera, June 28; Auto on the pirates, November 1684; Antonio de Arguelles, February 24, 1688.)

Don Thomas was not present when his ranch was raided the second time. Earlier in the year he had inherited the accountantcy from Antonio, and he began spending most of his time in New Spain and on his business arrangements with the Florencias. His fragata no longer went up the San Martin. The ranch of la Chua was left to the care of overseers, slaves, and Indian peons. (Governor Marquez Cabrera, October 6, 1686; Alo Leturiondo, April 29, 1697.)

Perhaps cattle no longer brought a high enough price to be worth Don Thomas's personal attention. 
(Bushnell MM)