It is surprising at the number of bond-servants that were in the colonies. They were used in all kinds of business and it seemed impossible to do without them. It is stated that in Virginia in 1670 there were six thousand English servants and but two thousand negroes. When it is considered that these bondmen served but for four years, the importations must have been great to keep up the numbers. When there were not a great number of bond-servants, they became well known to the families with whom they lived and they were well treated and well cared for. As the numbers increased, and especially when convicts and other evil characters were brought in, the treatment changed and often was quite cruel. As flogging was one of the main punishments of the world at that time, it was greatly used in the colonies, the servants being whipped naked with hickory rods and then rubbed with brine. There were also other ways of punishment, one being the use of thumb-screws. The sick servant, too, might not be cared for, especially if quite ill and likely to die, as he was not considered worth the physician's bill. Often the slaves were treated better than the servants, for the slaves were property while the servants were freed at the end of four years. Later laws were enacted in the colonies for the protection of the servants and cruel punishments prohibited. There were plenty of instances of fair treatment of servants by masters and sometimes even they were treated quite kindly and generously. =The Home.= When the first colonists came to America, they were poorly equipped for preparing dwelling places for themselves. There were plenty of trees for boards, abundance of clay for brick, limestone in plenty for plaster and mortar, and rocks of all kinds for building purposes, but the settlers did not possess implements with which to put these natural materials into forms for their use. Consequently they lived at first in primitive fashion. Some would take for their home the dense foliage of a tree, living under its protection, while others dwelt in hollow trees. Some made for themselves caves, by digging into a bank or hill, supporting the sides with brush and poles, and covering it with poles over which were laid sod or bark or rushes. It was natural for the early settlers to imitate the dwellings of the native inhabitants, and so wigwams were used by them. They made them of bark or of plaited rush or grass mats or of deerskin, all placed over a frame, or even they might simply pile brush about the frame, and in the far South these frames were covered with layers of palmetto leaves. In the Middle and Southern states, with their milder climate, these wigwams sometimes were left open on one side--the "half-face camp"--the fire being built in front of the opening. Sometimes this half-face camp was made more substantial by being built of logs, and again in some cases it was only a booth, with sides and roof of palmetto leaves.