Spanish Jade
The Spanish conquistadores came to Mexico and Central America for various reasons, among them the urge for adventure and exploration. Very likely the booty they desired most was gold diamond jewelry, and they found it. They also found chalchihuitl, which the natives prized even more highly than gold. This stone of great durability and bright green color was revered sufficiently by the Aztecs to be reserved primarily for royalty and high officialdom.
Apparently, even in those times, it was rather rare and limited in its uses and distribution. Soon after the Spanish conquest the high art of American jade carving died. The existing carvings were plundered and dispersed. Native interest in the stone was lost along with the highly organized culture which valued it. Even the locations of the jade deposits were forgotten. There had been sufficient time, however, for the Spanish to import the stone. They identified it as very like the Chinese material then being brought in by Portuguese traders, and they adopted a strange mixture of Chinese and Aztec beliefs about it. One of these had to do with the miraculous curative power which jade could exercise on urinary disorders.
They labeled it “piedra de ijada,” or stone of the loins. Given the similarity in Portuguese and Spanish languages, it is not surprising that the stone from both sources soon became known around the world by the corrupted name “jada.” In French literature it was translated as “pierre de I’ejade.” By repeated error it became “le jade” and in English literature it became simply “jade.”