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| | CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: America |
 | | The distribution of the American population at the time of Columbus is, of course, not known from personal observation, but it may be approximately reconstructed from information gathered after America began to be visited by Europeans. |
 | | South of Panama, nature was too exuberant, and the territory too small to favour similar progress; hence the Indians, while still quite proficient in certain arts, could not compare with their northern neighbors. |
 | | The farther south we go, the more indefinite become linguistic classifications, for the reason that the material at hand has not been sufficiently investigated, and also that there is, especially in regard to South America, much material still to be collected. |
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