David Livingstone (March 19, 1813-May 1, 1873), Scottish medical missionary, explorer, and author, was a national hero of the British Empire in the late 1800s. He rose to prominence for his explorations of the interior of the African continent, especially the sources of the Nile, and was the first European to see Victoria Falls and travel across the entirety of the African continent. Livingstone's Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (1857) was a bestseller and helped raise opposition to the slave trade.