Portland Point lies at the foot of Portland street at the head of St. John harbor--the locality is better known today as "Rankin's Wharf." Before the wharves in the vicinity were built the Point was quite a conspicuous feature in the contour of the harbor. The site of the old French fort on which James Simonds' house was built, with the company's store hard by, is now a green mound unoccupied by any building. The place was at first commonly called "Simonds' Point" but about the year 1776 the name of "Portland Point" seems to have come into use. Nevertheless, down to the time of the arrival of the Loyalists in 1783, the members of the company always applied the names of "St. Johns" or "St. John's River" to the scene of their operations, and it may be said that in spite of the attempt of the French governor Villebon and his contemporaries to perpetuate the old Indian name of Menaquesk, or Menagoeche, and of Governor Parr in later years to affix the name of "Parr-town" to that part of our city to the east of the harbor, the name given by de Monts and Champlain on the memorable 24 June, 1604, has persisted to the present day. The city of ST. JOHN, therefore, has not only the honor of being the oldest incorporated city in the British colonies, but traces the origin of its name to a known and fixed date three hundred years ago. Indeed as regards its name St. John is older than Boston, New York, Philadelphia or any city of importance on the Atlantic coast as far south as Florida. However the first English colonists who established themselves on a permanent footing at "St. John's" thought little of this historic fact. It was not sentiment but commercial enterprise than guided them.