of natives, as well as threats to the power of the caciques. Another source of conflict was the recruitment of natives as ranch hands. The power of the caciques of Apalachee and Timucua chiefdoms was dependent on their control of land and labor. A sufficient number of subjects working in the fields was required for the production of agricultural surpluses, which gave caciques the means to compete against other caciques, and facilitated the acquisition of prestige goods. Shortages of labor available to ranches through the repartimiento system led to ranchers offering higher wages to voluntary contract workers. This in turn led native men to leave their villages and take up residence on ranches, which deprived their caciques of their labor in the village's fields, and of their availability to meet the repartimiento demands of the Spanish government. It also removed the native men and their families from the Christianizing efforts of the missionaries. Prosperity, decline and sudden destruction Late in the 17th century, there were 34 permanent ranches in Spanish Florida. In 1698 and 1699, those 34 ranches paid a tax in kind of 222 head of cattle. The largest ranch, la Chua, paid a tax of 77 head of cattle. The tax rate on the produce of ranches ("fruits of the land") was two-and-a-half percent. A paid tax of 222 head of cattle implies that 8,880 calves were born in those two years, including 3,080 calves born on the la Chua ranch alone. In 1763, British colonial official James Robertson noted that, before the destruction of the Spanish missions in Florida at the beginning of the 18th century, cattle abounded in Florida, and one Spaniard (presumably, Tomás Menéndez Márquez, whose family owned la Chua) owned 7,000 head. Ranching had become less profitable with time. A beef steer was worth 21 pesos in 1651, but only six pesos in 1689. The value of a horse fell from 100 pesos in 1651 to 25 pesos in 1682. A pair of draft oxen was worth 80 pesos in 1651, but only 25 pesos in 1682. Moreover, the abundance of cattle attracted unwanted attention. French pirates based on Anclote Key on the Gulf coast of Florida raided Spanish ranches in 1682 and 1684, reaching the la Chua ranch in the Potano region both times. Runaway slaves and natives who had left their mission villages killed cattle for food. Native allies of the English