Once on the island, Unca Eliza, realizing she is a castaway grieves, then quickly devotes herself to God realizing how lucky she is to be alive. Unca Eliza finds an abandoned hermitage shortly after, which she takes as her shelter. Inside, she finds a manuscript of the previous occupant telling her how to survive as they have. The manuscript implies the occupant may soon be dead. She begins settling into her new lifestyle. She learns how to fend for herself and begrudgingly eats some goats and roots. After several weeks of this, she realizes the gravity of her situation and is much distressed, and comes down with a debilitating fever. Once she recovers, she consults the manuscript for more information, and learns that there is life on the island after all. She decides to explore her new habitation and understands the hermitage to be a religious temple of the sun, which contains numerous mummies. Upon returning from her explorations, she is startled by the presence of the hermit, who she thought was no longer on the island. The hermit dies overnight, and Unca Eliza makes more explorations and discovers an underground passageway leading to an idol of worship. While she is there she discovers that she can climb inside "the oracle" and it allows her voice to be heard for a great distance. A tempest brews outside, trapping her in the passageway. Afterward, the temple is visited by a group of Indians, as the manuscript predicted, and Unca Eliza hides in the secret passageway. While she is in there, she resolves to convert the Indians to Christianity ("from their idolatry") and develops a plan to hide within the body of the idol and to speak to the Indians when they arrive for their worship on the following year. An earthquake ensues during her practicing of the plan, and upon its conclusion, she discovers it has destroyed her abode. When the Indians arrive for their worship, she converses with the high-priest from within the idol, instructing the Indians in Christian principles.