Much of what we know about seventeenth-century Laos comes from the descriptions of these visitors. Despite the disruptions that spanned the period from Setthathirath's death to Sourigna Vongsa's ascension, Lan Xang, as Laos was called, apparently recovered very quickly. Both Van Wuystoff, the Dutchman, and Leria, who spent six years in Laos, were impressed with the nation's prosperity. Van Wuystoff noted the great number of monasteries and the monks, "more numerous than the soldiers of the King of Prussia." John Philip de Marini, who recorded and published Leria's visit, noted that monks went from Siam to Laos "as to University." The support of a large idle population, the monkhood, which harmed Laos' national economic development, nevertheless impressed both visitors. The first chapter of Marini's account is subtitled, The Greatness, Riches and Power of Laos. Both described the free market and flourishing trade, which supplied Europe with gum benzoin, lac, musk ("the first musk that has appeared in Europe from this part of the world." - de Marini) and other products. The palace of the king, de Marini would describe,