The two fleets took up the same position and adopted the same tactics. In the center on each side were collected the largest ships under the command of the respective chief admirals. Some initial successes were won by the Ottomans over the division made up of the Venetian vessels, but in the center, after desperate fighting, the men under Don John, owing to their superior weapons, got the better of their enemies, and the captain pasha was killed. The Algerian vessels showed much tactical superiority to the Christian right wing, under the command of John Andrew Doria; but, although they inflicted much damage, they could not save the day for the Ottomans. The victory cost the Christians dear, for they lost 12 galleys and 7500 men. But the defeat of the Turks was overwhelming; 15 galleys were sunk, 177 were captured, and many pashas and governors of provinces lost their lives; 12,000 to 15,000 of the galley slaves on the Turkish vessels, Christian captives, were set free. Such was the remarkable victory of October 7, 1571, remarkable not only for the heroism displayed, and the sensation caused by the success of the Christians, who had for so long been incapable of resisting Ottoman aggression, but also because of the small practical results produced. The Christian armada returned to Corfu, and from there made for the coast of Italy, where it disbanded. On the side of the vanquished, Euldj-Ali, gathering together eighty-seven ships as a nucleus for a new Ottoman fleet, sailed into the harbor of Constantinople, and was welcomed as a conqueror by the Sultan and the grand vizier, Sokoli. New honors were heaped upon him, not altogether undeserved, for during the winter a new fleet, larger and better armed than the one destroyed, was made ready for sea. The recuperative energy of the Ottoman Empire was not lost on the Venetians, and their agent at Constantinople, Antonio Barbaro, saw that there was more than an empty boast in the words of the Vizier, who said to him, “There is a great difference between your loss and ours. By taking from you the Kingdom of Cyprus we have cut off your arm; by defeating our fleet you have only shaved our beard. A beard grows out thicker for being shaven.” This argument appealed to the republic, and in 1573 peace was made. The conditions were the cession of Cyprus, the payment of a heavy war indemnity by Venice, and a regulation of the frontier in Albania and Dalmatia, that secured to the Turks their ancient possessions there. The Venetians also were required to increase the annual tribute exacted for the Island of Zante, which was still in their hands.