the Maltese cross, emblem of the Knights of St. John and reminiscent of
the crusades.

[Illustration: Stamp, "Postes Egyptiennes", 5 piastres]

[Illustration: Stamp, [Greek: Hellas], 2 [Greek: drachmai]]

[Illustration: Stamp, [Greek: Hellas], 1896, 5 [Greek: drachmai]]

[Illustration: Stamp, [Greek: Hellas], 1896, 10 [Greek: drachmai]]

[Illustration: Stamp, "Fiji", 1 penny]

[Illustration: Stamp, "Labuan", 8 cents]

[Illustration: Stamp, "Congo", 40 centimes]

[Illustration: Stamp, "Congo", 10 francs]

Egypt has her sphynx and pyramids; Greece an artistic series of pictures
of her famous statues and ruins. Fiji shows a pirogue, the native canoe,
rudely shaped from a tree trunk and hollowed out by fire. Labuan has a
piratical looking native dhow. The stamps of Rhodesia and the Congo
Free State depict the advance of civilization on the dark continent.
History is sumptuously illustrated in the series of stamps issued by our
Government to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the
new world by Columbus and to celebrate the settlement and growth of the
great west. Portugal also has celebrated, in an elaborate issue of
stamps, the voyage of Vasco da Gama to India. Other countries have been
quite too ready to do likewise until we have feared we were in danger of