"Suppose a white sailor were
thrown ashore on an island of [Purple People Eaters]
...."
The single white
sailor in the first generation has four offspring in the second
generation, twice as many as a local PPE. All of them are
intermediate in color between white and deep purple. These
offspring also have an excess number of offspring in the third
generation, who are intermediate between lilac and deep purple.
In each successive generation, even though the descendants of
the original white have more offspring than other individuals in
the population, their coloration will always converge on the
darker color of the bulk of the population, and eventually the
population will again become uniformly dark. No matter the
reproductive advantage gained by the introduced white in the
first generation, the population cannot become white in
the long run.
Darwin told friends
that Jenkins' argument bothered him more than any other.