As the thought struck De La Cosa's mind, his heart jumped, and his expression turned grave. If they were just an ordinary merchant ship caught by the Portuguese Navy, at most they would have to forfeit some cargo, losing a bit of money. But if they were the official navy of Castile, given the current neutral and slightly adversarial relations between the two countries during the truce, they might be detained and interrogated for a while before being released back to the Kingdom of Castile.
But now, they were an exploration fleet returning from the ocean with crucial, invaluable intelligence on new trade routes! And what the Portuguese people had been tirelessly striving for was to open up new routes to reach the wealthy East! The value of this information and its serious consequences were significant enough for the Portuguese to disregard any underlying rules of the Catholic World... In such a situation, if they were caught by the Portuguese Navy, the dreadful consequences...
