In May 1575 a Spanish agent named Jaime de Losada arrived in Constantinople. He belonged to the vast plethora of Spanish agents who were sent undercover to the Ottoman Empire - in this case by the Duke of Terranova, the Viceroy of Sicily - to obtain useful intelligence. Certainly, Losada knew Constantinople very well: he had previously been a slave of the notorious Kiliç Ali, the admiral of the Ottoman fleet originally from Calabria. His mission was to approach his former master, with whom he had a bond of trust, to negotiate the ransom of some prisoners captured at La Goletta and Tunis in 1574. However, there was a huge twist that no one in the Spanish establishment had anticipated: Kiliç Ali introduced Losada to none other than Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, the Grand Vizier himself. On this occasion, Sokollu asked Losada about Spanish naval intentions in the Mediterranean; having ascertained Spanish geostrategic considerations, Sokollu promptly asked Losada if there was a possibility for an Ottoman-Spanish truce. This was certainly unexpected news, but a deeper reflection on what was the Ottoman situation in the Mediterranean shows the profound coherence of this request. Since Palmira Brummett correctly described the Ottoman fleet as an "elephant challenging the power of whales", it is consequential that Sokollu sought to find a solution to the maintenance of such a large and expensive fleet, which represented a massive drain on Ottoman finances. Moreover, since Tunis and La Goletta were now in Ottoman hands, there was little the fleet could do, because attacking Spain was inconceivable and completely nonsensical in strategic terms. Unfortunately for Sokollu, Jaime de Losada failed to complete his mission: the Spanish agent died in Otranto on his way back; one of his servants eventually informed the Viceroy of this opportunity, which materialized - after long negotiations - in 1581. But this is another story.