Katsonis occasionally collaborates with another Russian flotilla of five state-funded and four Greek privateer vessels under the Maltese captain Guglielmo Lorenzo that also operates in the Aegean, but the latter's attempt to subordinate Katsonis to his command is strongly rejected by Katsonis, who insists on the independence of his command, and the opportunity for uniting the two fleets to greater effect is lost.

Indeed, relations sour to such extent that Katsonis prohibits the islanders from assisting Lorenzo's flotilla, while many of the latter's crewmen defect to Katsonis, lured by the greater salary he gives his men.

Katsonis' fleet is far more effective and experienced than that of Lorenzo, and Katsonis himself, as a Greek, has far broader appeal among the Greek populations of the Aegean, who regard him as a hero.

Lorenzo, on the other hand, despite assembling a large fleet of thirty-six vessels, leaves the Aegean in August and returns to Sicily, declining to continue operations against the Ottomans as too risky.

Katsonis continues his successful activity, defeating a joint Turkish and Algerian fleet off Eleni (Makronisos) on = August 4, so that the Ottoman Porte attempts to bribe him by offering, through the dragoman of the fleet, Alexandros Mavrogenis, a full pardon, the right to settle with his followers on whichever island he chooses, hereditary rule over it, and two hundred thoi=usand gold coins.