Ch. 1. Two Views of the Mists
Ch. 2. Queen Calafia, Griffins, and the Naming of the Golden State (1500)
Ch. 3. A Dream Revised: The New World Odyssey of Cabeza de Vaca (1528)
Ch. 4. A Violent Pursuit of the Dream: The Gentleman of Elvas's Account of the de Soto Expedition (1539)
Ch. 5. Exploring the Myth: Fray Marcos de Niza's Discovery of a City of Cibola (1539)
Ch. 6. Deceived by the Dream: Pedro de Castaneda's Long Look Back at the Coronado Expedition (1540)
Ch. 7. Sir Francis Drake and the Brass Plate (1579)
Ch. 8. Settling into the Dream: The Pioneer Epic of Gaspar Castano de Sosa (1590)
Ch. 9. Rey of the Wild Frontier: Hernan Gallegos's Narrative of the Chamuscado-Rodriguez Expedition (1591)
Ch. 10. Sunken Ships and Winged Corrals: The Juan de Onate Expedition to New Mexico (1598)
Ch. 11. The Dream in Verse: Gaspar Perez de Villagra's New World Epic (1610)
Ch. 12. The Basic Stuff of the West: Pierre Esprit Radisson (1651).
Ch. 13. The Self as Myth: Father Louis Hennepin (1675)
Ch. 14. Retaking the Dream: Diego Vargas Zapata y Lujan Ponce de Leon and the Reconquest of New Mexico (1695)
Ch. 15. Defending the Dream: The Diary of Juan Mateo Manje (1697)
Ch. 16. Embroidering the Dream: The Fabulous Tale of Mathieu Sagean (1701)
Ch. 17. How Miracles Prove Dreams: Fray Francisco de Celiz's Account of the Alarcon Expedition to Texas (1718)
Ch. 18. Chasing a Nightmare into the Dream: The Valverde Campaign (1719)
Ch. 19. The Stuff of Dreams: Pierre Gaultier de La Verendrye (1730)
Ch. 20. Sailing into the Northern Mists: Georg Wilhelm Steller (1741)
Ch. 21. Rescued from the Dream: Miguel Costanso and the 1769 Expedition by Sea to San Diego
Ch. 22. Mixing Fact and Fiction: Jonathan Carver (1769)
Ch. 23. Searching for Accounts of the Search: Father Juan Crespi and the 1774 Voyage of the Santiago
Ch. 24. Mystery Man of the Far North: Peter Pond (1775).
Ch. 25. Crossing the Desert to the Promised Land: Pedro Font's Diary of the Second Anza Expedition (1776)
Ch. 26. Searching for a Shortcut: Fray Silvestre Velez de Escalante's Journal of the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition (1776)
Ch. 27. Don Quixote in the Wilderness: John Ledyard (1779)
Ch. 28. Cartographer of the Human Heart: David Thompson (1784)
Ch. 29. "An Irreparable Loss": The Diaries of Frances Hornby Barkley (1787)
Ch. 30. The Roads to Santa Fe: Pedro Vial and Francisco Amangual (1792)
Ch. 31. The Mists Drawn Back: Alexander Mackenzie (1793)
Ch. 32. "Thus Ended a Very Unpleasant Affair, with the Ruin of a Pretty Face": Alexander Henry (1799)
Ch. 33. "The Most Horrid Sight . . . That Ever my Eyes Witnessed": John R. Jewitt (1803).