FRANCIS PETIT DE LA, secretary and interpreter to the king of France, in the Turkish and Arabic languages, died November 4, 1695, in his 73rd year; after having executed this employment for the space of 44 years. And it appears, that he executed it with as much integrity as abilities; for, when the Algerines fought for peace of Louis XIV., conditions were offered, by which they were required to reimburse to this monarch 600,000 francs. The terms being thought exorbitant, they had recourse to stratagem; and they offered a large sum to La Croix, who was the interpreter of all that passed, if he would put into the treaty "crowns of Tripoli," instead of "French crowns," which would have made to the Algerines a difference of more than 100,000 livres. But the integrity of the interpreter triumphed over the temptation; which however was the greater, as it was next to impossible he should be discovered. Besides the Turkish and the Arabic, the Persian and the Tartarian, he also understood the Ethiopian and Armenian languages. He is well known to the learned world by many works. He translated the "History of France" into the Turkish language. He digested the three volumes of "Voyages into the East Indies" of M. Thévenot. He made an accurate catalogue of all the Turkish and Persian books which are in the king's library. He compiled two complete Dictionaries for the French and Turkish languages; and, when he was dying, he was about to present the world with the history of Jenghis Khan. He undertook this history CRO

Croix, history by the order of M. Colbert: for this minister, Croix, a together intent upon aggrandizing his master, was accustomed every week to call together, either in the king's library or his own, certain of the learned, whom, according as they excelled in their several departments in literature, he constantly set to work. This history, which cost La Croix more than ten years labour, is useful not only to the learned who are curious to know past events, or to geographers who had hitherto been greatly ignorant of Grand Tartary, but likewise to all who trade to China, Persia, or other eastern parts of the world. There is a good map of northern Asia drawn by M. de l'Isle, accompanying the work; which M. Petit de la Croix, the author's son, not only revised, but, to render it more curious, added to it an abridgement of the lives of all those authors from whom it was extracted. It was translated into English, and published at London, 1722, &c.