Jean Baptiste du, was born at Paris, Feb. 1, 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 arranging the letters 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. He died Aug. 18, 1743. Dr Halde is represented as a man of mild and amiable character, and as remarkable alike for his unaffected piety and unrevealed industry. He was the author of some Latin poems of no great value; but is still remembered for the following works:—Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses écrites des Missions Étrangères, which he edited with great ability from the ninth to the twenty-sixth volume inclusive, and which have been translated into English and German. 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.