Case file · Folklore / legend
The Pitch Lake and the hummingbird legend
Walter Raleigh caulked his ships at Trinidad's Pitch Lake in 1595. Local tradition says the asphalt lake swallowed a Chaima village whose people had killed and eaten hummingbirds, the souls of their ancestors.
1595 CE · 10.23, -61.63 · status: legend
The account
The lake is the largest natural deposit of asphalt in the world, and objects, tree trunks and even fossils rise slowly from it. The legend explains the lake as divine punishment. The year marks Raleigh's description, the first written record of the lake.