sea-fight in
the same waters only a few years ago that had ended in dire disaster to the
Christian arms. Then through the hours of darkness the fleet worked its way
past the rock-bound shores of Santa Maura, whose cliffs glimmered in the
moonlight. The roar of the breakers at their base warned the pilots to give
them good sea room. In the grey of the morning the peaks and ridges of
Ithaca and Cephalonia rose out of the haze upon the sea, and soon after
sunrise the fleet was moving through the narrow strait between the islands.

In the strait there were shelter and smooth water, but the wind was rising,
backing from north-west to west, and raising a sea outside Cephalonia that
sent a heavy swell sweeping round its southern point and into the opening
of the narrows. As the leading ships reached the mouth of the strait Don
Juan did not like the look of the weather, and decided to anchor in the Bay
of Phiscardo, a large opening in the Cephalonian shore just inside the
strait.

For two days the fleet lay weather-bound in the bay. During one of these
days of storm Kara Khodja, the Algerine, tried again to reconnoitre the
fleet, but was driven off by the guardships at the entrance of the strait.

On 6 October the wind shifted to the east and the sea began to go down. Don
Juan refused to wait any longer. The fleet put to sea, under bare masts,
and, rowing hard against the wind and through rough water, it worked its
way slowly across to the sheltered waters on the mainland coast between it
and the islands of Curzolari. Here the fleet anchored for the night, just
outside the opening of the Gulf of Corinth. Not twenty miles away up the
gulf lay the Turkish fleet, for Ali had brought it out of the Bay of
Lepanto, and anchored in the Bay of Calydon.

When the sun rose on the 7th, the wind was still contrary, blowing from the
south-east. But at dawn the ships were under way, and moving slowly in long
procession between the mainland and the islands that fringe the coast.
There was a certain amount of straggling. It was difficult to keep the
divisions closed up, and the tall galleasses especially felt the effect of
the head wind, and some of the galleys had to assist them by towing.

As the ships of the vanguard began to clear the channel between Oxia Island
and Cape Scropha, and the wide expanse of water at the entrance of the Gulf
of Corinth opened before them, the look-outs reported several ships hull
down on the horizon to the e