Editing Curaçao (section)

== Etymology ==
One explanation for the island's name is that ''Curaçao'' was the [[Autonym (onomastics)|autonym]] by which its indigenous peoples identified themselves.<ref>Joubert and Van Buurt, 1994</ref> Early [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Spanish]] accounts support this theory, referring to the indigenous peoples as ''Indios Curaçaos''.<ref name="curacao-nature">[http://www.curacao-nature.com/curacao "Curaçao"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224165042/http://www.curacao-nature.com/curacao |date=24 February 2021 }}, Curaçao-nature.com, 2005–2016. Retrieved 12 August 2016</ref>

From 1525, the island was featured on Spanish maps as ''Curaçote, Curasaote, Curasaore'', and even ''Curacaute''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://decolonialatlas.wordpress.com/2015/02/02/taino-names-of-the-caribbean-islands/|title=Taino Names of the Caribbean Islands|date=2 February 2015}}</ref> By the 17th century, it appeared on most maps as ''Curaçao'' or ''Curazao.''<ref name="curacao-nature" /> On a map created by [[Hieronymus Cock]] in 1562 in [[Antwerp]], the island was called ''Qúracao''.<ref>[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/map_item.pl?data=/home/www/data/gmd/gmd3/g3290/g3290/ct000342.jp2&style=dsxpmap&itemLink=r?ammem/gmd:@filreq(@field(NUMBER+@band(g3290+ct000342))+@field(COLLID+dsxpmap))&title=Americae%20sive%20qvartae%20orbis%20partis%20nova%20et%20exactissima%20descriptio%20%2f%20avtore%20Diego%20Gvtiero%20Philippi%20Regis%20Hisp.%20etc.%20Cosmographo%20;%20Hiero.%20***%20excvde%201562%20;%20Hieronymus%20***%20excude%20cum%20gratia%20et%20priuilegio%201562. Cock's 1562 map], Library of Congress website</ref>

A persistent but undocumented story claims the following: in the 16th and 17th centuries—the early years of European exploration—when [[sailor]]s on long voyages got [[scurvy]] from lack of [[vitamin C]], sick Portuguese or Spanish sailors were left on the island now known as Curaçao. When their ship returned, some had recovered, probably after eating vitamin C-rich fruit there. From then on, the Portuguese allegedly referred to the island as ''Ilha da Curação'' (Island of Healing) or the Spanish as ''Isla de la Curación.<ref name="CIA World Factbook- Curaçao" />''