JOSEPH-ANNE-MARIE DE MOYRIAC DE, a learned Jesuit, was born in the castle of Mailiac, in Bugey, on the borders of Savoy, and appointed a missionary to China, whither he proceeded in 1703. At the age of twenty-eight he had acquired such skill in the characters, arts, sciences, mythology, and ancient books of the Chinese, as to astonish even the learned men of the celestial empire. He was greatly beloved and esteemed by the Emperor Kham-Hi, who died in 1722, and, together with other missionaries, was employed by that prince to construct a map of China and Chinese Tartary, which was engraved in France in the year 1732. He likewise made separate maps of particular provinces of that vast empire; and the emperor was so pleased with these productions, that he fixed the author at his court. The Great Annals of China, as they are called, were also translated into French by Father Mailla, and his manuscript was transmitted to France in the year 1737. This work was published in thirteen volumes quarto, under the inspection of the Abbé Grosier, and is the first complete history of that extensive empire. The style, which was heavy and bombastic, has been revised by the editor; and the speeches, which were long and tedious, have been omitted. Father Mailla, after having resided forty-five years in China, died at Pekin on the 28th of June 1748, in the seventyninth year of his age. He was a man of a lively and gentle character, capable of the most persevering labour and the most unremitting activity.