Ali Pasha's arrogant petulance then turned to insolence; he jeered at the fears of the veterans, and told the Council of the information he had received from two spies, Kara Kodja and Kara Djali, Barbary corsairs, whom he had sent to reconnoitre the Christian fleet in Corfu; according to them it was so inferior in strength and numbers that it would have difficulty in resisting the attack of the Turks. Ali, however, did not know that this enumeration had been made while the vanguard of D. Juan de Cardona and the rearguard of the Marqués de Santa Cruz had been detached at Tarento with some other ships, and that, consequently, there only remained at the moment seventy galleys in the fleet of the League. Thus the confidence of both Generalissimos, Ali Pasha and D. John of Austria, was founded on the same error; D. John supposed that the galleys of Aluch Ali had separated themselves from the Turkish fleet, and were on their way to Algiers or Tripoli; and Ali Pasha, not reckoning on the ships of D. Juan de Cardona, or those of the Marqués de Santa Cruz, and in his ignorance of naval matters, which was great, failed to appreciate the importance of the six galliasses which old Mahomet Scirocco so much feared.
The discussions became embittered, until there was contention among the Ottoman leaders, to which Aluch Ali put an end by saying, "Silence, I am ready, because it is written that the youth of a Captain Pasha has more weight than my forty-three years of fighting. But the Berbers have made sport of you, Pasha! Remember this when the peril draws nigh."
Having said this with impassive Oriental gravity, Aluch Ali left to prepare his fleet. Then everyone was for Ali Pasha; but he, more for appearance than from fear or want of confidence, desired to send the corsair Kara Kodja to make fresh investigation of the enemy's strength. So the Barbary pirate set out from Lepanto with two galleys, and began to seek cautiously for the allied fleet; on the 5th he had crossed the long, narrow channel of Ithaca, which is at the extreme north of the bay of Samos, in Cephalonia, having to take refuge in the creek of Pilaros, owing to bad weather. D. John proposed to reach the isles of Curzolari from the north, and to shelter among these islands to rest the crews on the 6th, and to fall back suddenly on Cape Scropha on the 7th, surprising the Turkish fleet anchored at Lepanto. Kara Kodja, with daring, entered the channel of Ithaca with his two galleys, and discovered the allied fleet at Pilaros; but he had gone so far that the Christians, in their turn, discovered him and gave chase, and it was only by the great strength of his oarsmen, and because the wind favoured him, that he was able to escape. However, again this time God desired to blind this Barbary pirate, and in the hurry and fear of his flight his sharp eyes failed to see the ships that were sheltered behind a bend of the bay. So Kara Kodja thought that the fleet had not altered since he saw it at Corfu without its rear or vanguard, and returned triumphant to Lepanto, confident in his mistake, and he announced to Ali Pasha that the Christians were at Pilaros, in Cephalonia, and that there was nothing to diminish the enormous advantage the Turks had over them.