OnePiece

I agree Noland mostly wanted to see his friends again and maybe get proof of his discovery. The only way to secure funding for the expedition was to promise the king a nice payout. In real life explorers often had to make bold claims about the rewards of voyages in order to get funding. It costs hella cheddar to supply and crew a ship for a voyage of potentially years. Noland didn’t have that kind of scratch and so the King could dictate some terms.