 de Lezo returned to its aid with six ships and 5,000 men and managed to drive off the Algerian pirate after a difficult fight.Dissatisfied with this, Lezo took his 60-gun flagship into the corsair's refuge of Mostaganem Bay, a bastion defended by two forts and 4,000 Moors, inflicting heavy damage on the forts and town.In the following months he established a naval blockade, preventing the Algerians from receiving reinforcements from Istanbul and thereby gaining valuable time for the securing of Oran's defense, until an epidemic forced him to return to Cádiz.