'This novel socialisation behaviour in Ursus arctos populations on the oceanic fringe may serve a function for territoriality or sexual selectivity'

(If anyone knows anything else about this source or this phenomenon in early modern English please feel free to share more! Happy Black History Month! 🌠)

But if that's true the ending is cheeky! In the last letter the author says they are sailing back to Tunis and then sign off:
'I remain' (ha!) 'your constant, undisguis'd and sincere Friend'
V. naughty from an author who's writing to himself and using literary blackface for clout!!🙀

But 'Letters from a Moor' (thought to actually be by a 'William Lloyd') doesn't say anything especially shocking. So why the attribution to a traveler from Tunis? 🤔
In this case maybe the Black identity was a marketing tactic? (the promise of a fresh, exotic voice) 🤑
www.jstor.org/stable/29149...

But let's go deeper... This book is actually not by a Tunisian traveler at all!! But it still tells us something about Black history in Europe. In the early modern period, we know Black and Asian identities were sometimes used by Europeans to speak truth to power without censorship... ✍🏽👑

The book is really interesting! From my history of nature perspective there's an account of the fishes caught at Scarborough 🎣, the herrings of Yarmouth ⛵(@projectfishistory.bsky.social), and a fun description of the lions of the Tower of London 🦁 (who were sent by the Emperor of Morocco of course)!