David Livingstone (; 19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish physician, Congregationalist, and pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, an explorer in Africa, and one of the most popular British heroes of the late 19th-century Victorian era. He had a mythic status that operated on a number of interconnected levels: Protestant missionary martyr, working-class "rags-to-riches" inspirational story, scientific investigator and explorer, imperial reformer, anti-slavery crusader, and advocate of British commercial and colonial expansion. Livingstone's fame as an explorer and his obsession with learning the sources of the Nile River was founded on the belief that if he could solve that age-old mystery, his fame would give him the influence to end the East African Arab–Swahili slave trade. "The Nile sources", he told a friend, "are valuable only as a means of opening my mouth with power among men. It is this power [with] which I hope to remedy an immense evil
David Livingstone (19 de marzo de 1813 – 1 de mayo de 1873) fue un médico escocés, congregacionalista y misionero cristiano pionero con la London Missionary Society, explorador en África, y uno de los héroes británicos más populares de la era victoriana de finales del siglo XIX. Tenía un estatus mítico que operaba en una serie de niveles interconectados: mártir misionero protestante, historia inspiradora de la clase obrera "rags-to-riches", investigador científico y explorador, reformador imperial, cruzador anti-esclavitud, y defensor de la expansión comercial y colonial británica. La fama de Livingstone como explorador y su obsesión con el aprendizaje de las fuentes del río Nilo se fundó en la creencia de que si pudo resolver ese misterio de la edad, su fama le daría la influencia para terminar el comercio de esclavos de África Oriental-Swahili.