1844-1894

British explorer who was the first European to cross the African continent from east to west. From 1857-83 Cameron served in the Royal Navy. In 1873 he was sent to Africa to relieve David Livingstone. After learning of Livingstone's death, Cameron continued to explore the region, documenting valuable geographical, political, and anthropological information about central Africa and, by 1875, crossing equatorial Africa. In 1882 Cameron returned to Africa with Sir Richard Burton's Gold Coast mining expedition.