JOHN BAPTIST DU, was born at Paris on the 1st of February 1674, and having entered into the society of Jesus, he was at length appointed to succeed Father Legobien, who had been intrusted with the duty of collecting and arranging the letters which they received from different quarters of the globe. He was also for some time secretary to the famous Father Letellier, confessor to the king of France. Towards the close of his life he was attacked with acute spasms, which he endured with exemplary resignation, and died on the 18th of August 1743. Duhalde is represented as a man of mild and amiable character, and as remarkable alike for his unaffected piety and unrewarded industry. He was the author of some Latin poems, which do not evince any superior degree of excellence; but the productions for which he is principally distinguished are, 1. Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses écrites des Missions Étrangères, which he edited with great ability from the ninth to the twenty-sixth volume inclusively, and which have been translated into English and German; 2. Description Géographique, Historique, Chronologique, Politique, et Physique de l'Empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie Chinoise, Paris, 1735, in four volumes large folio, with figures and an atlas by D'Anville. This work, the first in which China is described with so much exactness and detail, is at the same time a beautiful monument of French typography. The description contained in this work and in the Lettres Edifiantes has furnished materials to almost all the modern writers who have treated of that vast empire, and has contributed materially to advance the science of geography.