JOSEPH-ANNE MARIE DE MOYRIAC DE, a learned Jesuit, was born in the castle of Mailiac in the Bugey, and appointed a missionary to China, whither he went in 1703. At the age of 28 he had acquired so great a skill in the characters, arts, sciences, mythology, and ancient books of the Chinese, as to astonish even the learned. He was greatly beloved and esteemed by the emperor Kham-Hi, who died in 1722. He, together with other missionaries, was employed by that prince to draw a chart of China and Chinese Tartary, which was engraven in France in the year 1732. He drew likewise particular charts of some of the provinces of this vast empire; with which the emperor was so pleased, that he settled the author at his court. The great annals of China were also translated into French by Father Mailla, and his manuscript was transmitted to France in 1737. This work was published in 12 volumes quarto, under the inspection of M. Grosier, and is the first complete history of that extensive empire. The style, which was full of hyperbole and bombast, has been revised by the editor, and the speeches which extended to too great a length, and had too much femenin in them, have been omitted. Father Mailla, after having resided 45 years in China, died at Pekin on the 28th of June 1748, in the 79th year of his age. Kien-Lung the reigning emperor paid the expenses of his funeral. He was a man of a lively and gentle character, capable of the most persevering labour and the most unremitting activity.