Simon De La Loubere was the first European scholar who drew westerners' attention to the existence of the Pali /Balie/language and its literature. He informed his European colleagues about this interesting language of Southeast Asia in a formal manner. More than 300 years ago he wrote:
„On leur enseigne aussi la langue Balie, qui est comme j'ay dit plus d'une fois la langue de leur Réligion & de leurs Loix:... . .
Ils écrivent le Siamois & le Balie de la gauche à la droite, du même sens que nous écrivons nos langues d' Europe:... “
The oldest primary source of history of Thailand in Ayutthaya period in 1691. There are almost no other direct descriptive records before establishment of Rattanakosin (Bangkok) in 1782. Its content is sometimes hard to read, contains mistakes and biases. But its value as a traceable historical milestone is the best of its century.
(Read in the German translation from 1800) Beschreibung Thailands vor über 300 Jahren: interessant, spannend, gut geschrieben, wirklich sehr lesenswert