João and his team of astronomers and mathematicians, probably more experienced and skillful, forced their opponents to have this line moved from its original position, proposed by the pope, more than a thousand miles to the west—midway between the Portuguese Cape Verde Islands and the Caribbean islands, discovered by Columbus, which he believed to be part of the coast of Asia. Conveniently, this alteration was to bring the coast of Brazil, as yet apparently undiscovered, within the Portuguese ambit.
