Katsonis with his fleet had left the…
April 1790 CE
In late August, however, the Ottoman fleet had arrived at Kea and sacked the island.
The men left behind had been killed, and the installations erected razed to the ground.
In early spring 1790, after having undertaken repairs to his ships, Katsonis with a fleet of nine vessels had returned to the Aegean.
Klephts (Greek for "thieves" and perhaps originally meaning just "brigands") are highwaymen turned self-appointed armatoloi, anti-Ottoman insurgents, and warlike mountain-folk who live in the Greek countryside.
Descendants of Greeks who had retreated into the mountains during the fifteenth century in order to avoid Ottoman rule, they carried on a continuous war against Ottoman rule and remain active as brigands.
Katsonis, having taken on board the klepht Androutsos and his eight hundred men, has raided Turkish shipping in the Aegean, advancing up to Tenedos in hopes of confronting an Ottoman fleet.
On April 15, they arrive at Kea, which they refortify and regarrison.