Two shipmates survived a sinking and held onto a piece of floating wreckage until they reached a small island. Fortunatly, they soon found a small spring and slaked their thirst.

They could observe that the island was quite small, so they agreed that they would separate and walk aroung the island and meet at the other end in an attempt to find some source of food. They did so, and when they met, the first survivor reported that all he found was a plant that was dark red, had shiny leaves and didn't taste so bad. The second survivor said that he found about the same thing, but he described the plant as dark red, almost purple.

They mutually concluded that they had been marooned.