| GROUP I.—THREE RIVAL CIVILIZATIONS. | |
| I. The Spaniards. | |
| PAGE | |
| An Historic Era | 1 |
| De Soto's Discovery of the Mississippi | 10 |
| Death and Burial of De Soto | 18 |
| The Indians of Florida | 20 |
| How New Mexico came to be Explored | 28 |
| "The Marvellous Country" | 39 |
| Folk Lore of the Pueblos | 45 |
| Last Days of Charles V. and Philip II. | 53 |
| Sword and Gown in California | 55 |
| II. The French. | |
| Prelude | 67 |
| Westward by the Great Inland Waterways | 71 |
| The Situation in A.D. 1672 | 80 |
| Count Frontenac | 84 |
| Joliet and Marquette | 85 |
| The Man La Salle | 93 |
| La Salle, Prince of Explorers | 99 |
| Discovery of the Upper Mississippi | 105 |
| The Lost Colony: St. Louis of Texas | 109 |
| Iberville founds Louisiana | 118 |
| France wins the Prize | 123 |
| Louis XIV. | 130 |
| III. The English. | |
| The Bleak North-west Coast | 132 |
| Hudson's Bay to the South Sea | 136 |
| The Russians in Alaska | 140 |
| England on the Pacific | 143 |
| Queen Elizabeth | 147 |
| Interlude. | |
| What Jonathan Carver aimed to do in 1766 | 149 |
| John Ledyard's Idea | 153 |
| A Yankee Ship discovers the Columbia River | 156 |
| The West at the Opening of the Century | 162 |
| GROUP II.—BIRTH OF THE AMERICAN IDEA. | |
| I. America for Americans. | |
| Acquisition of Louisiana | 171 |
| A Glance at our Purchase | 175 |
| II. The Pathfinders. | |
| Lewis and Clarke ascend the Missouri | 184 |
| They cross the Continent | 191 |
| Pike explores the Arkansas Valley | 198 |
| New Mexico in 1807 | 205 |
| Gold in Colorado.—A Trapper's Story | 208 |
| The Flag in Oregon | 211 |
| Louisiana admitted 1812 | 214 |
| III. The Oregon Trail. | |
| The Trapper, Backwoodsman, and Emigrant | 215 |
| Long explores the Platte Valley | 219 |
| Missouri and the Compromise of 1821 | 223 |
| Arkansas admitted 1836 | 227 |
| Thomas H. Benton's Idea | 227 |
| With the Vanguard to Oregon | 233 |
| Texas admitted | 241 |
| Interlude. | |
| New Political Ideas | 246 |
| Iowa admitted | 248 |
| The War with Mexico | 248 |
| Conquest of New Mexico | 251 |
| Taking of California | 256 |
| The Mormons in Utah | 264 |
| GROUP III.—GOLD IN CALIFORNIA, AND WHAT IT LED TO. | |
| I. The Great Emigration. | |
| El Dorado found at last | 271 |
| Swarming through the Golden Gate | 276 |
| The California Pioneers | 279 |
| California a Free State | 285 |
| Arizona | 288 |
| II. The Contest for Free Soil. | |
| The Kansas-Nebraska Struggle | 290 |
| Kansas the Battle-ground | 295 |
| The Battle fought and won | 299 |
| Two Free States admitted | 307 |
| III. The Crown of the Continent. | |
| Gold in Colorado, and the Rush there | 308 |
| The Pacific Railroads | 315 |
| Kansas, Nevada, Nebraska, and Colorado admitted | 320 |
| The Recent States | 322 |
| The Work of Eighty Years | 326 |