From the _Swiftsure_, Admiral Penn’s flagship in the expedition which gained the island for England, to the _Suffolk_ and _Sydney_, many of the finest ships in the British Navy have sailed or steamed past Port Royal’s shores; and the flags of not a few of England’s most celebrated seamen have waved near its walls—Myngs, Morgan (who was buried there), Nevell, Benbow (who died there), Vernon, Hosier, Ogle, Keppel, Rodney, Peter Parker, Nelson, Joshua Rowley, McClintock, and lastly Admiral Lloyd. Columbus, who was intimately acquainted with the north side of Jamaica, probably only saw Port Royal from the _Niña’s_ deck as he, after discovering the island on his second voyage, in 1494, beat slowly homeward along the south side, after having exchanged courtesies with the caciques in Old Harbour bay, putting in here and there for shelter from the contrary wind. During the Spanish occupation the Point remained unoccupied and the harbour of Kingston was disregarded till 1520, when the Spaniards removed their northside capital to St. Jago de la Vega. In January 1596–97, the inhabitants of Port Royal, had there been any, would have seen that adventurous soldier of fortune, Sir Anthony Shirley, sail up the harbour, whence he plundered the island and burnt St. Jago; in March 1643, the buccaneering hero Captain William Jackson, with his marauding company of three ships sent out from England by the Earl of Warwick, recruited at Barbados and St. Kitts, again insulted the powerless or supine Spaniards, passing Port Royal, which was then an island; and in May 1655, the inhabitants fell an easy prey to a ragamuffin army of 8000 troops contained in thirty-eight ships under Penn and Venables, who tried to atone thereby for their ineffectual attempt on Hispaniola. This was probably the largest fleet which up to that moment had entered Kingston harbour. The English conquerors soon saw the strategic advantage of Cagua (which they corrupted into Cagway), or the Point, as they called it, as a protection to the harbour and the capital at St. Jago de la Vega.