An early English writer described the manner in which these "kids" were obtained to send to Virginia--"very many children ... were violently taken away or cheatingly duckoyed without the consent or knowledge of their Parents by ... persons ... called Spirits ... into private places or ships, and there sold to be transported, and then resold there to be servants to those that will give most for them." A letter written in England in 1610 says that--"there are many ships going to Virginia with them 14 or 15 hundred children w'ch they have gathered up in divers places." The shipmaster who brought the children over could sell the indentures for whatever he could get for them. If he could not find a purchaser, he could sell the children to persons known as "soul drivers" who would "buy a parcel of servants" to fill his wagon and drive through the country until he could sell them at a cash profit. Other indentured servants were brought over by planters as "head-rights," which meant that the planter paid for their transportation and received fifty acres of land as a reward for transporting an immigrant to Virginia. The indenture was a simple bargain between master and servant with protection by law for each. The treatment of the servant depended upon the nature of his master. The boys who had long terms to serve became restless and often ran away across the Potomac to Maryland or to an Indian village. They were usually caught and punished and put back to work. In Virginia the punishment was sometimes thirty lashes and the letter R branded on the cheek, forehead or shoulder. The hair was sometimes cropped, and the leg shackled with irons, even during working hours. There is no evidence that the settlers of the Northern Neck did anything more severe than to whip their "kids." Food, clothing and shelter was provided by the master. The shelter was usually in "a house set apart for him." The list of clothing might include a coat of frieze, a pair of leather breeches, a black hat, or cap of fur, a pair of "wooden heel shoes," and underclothes of dowlas and lockram. The indentured girl servants did not work in the fields unless they were slattern and offensive. Their work was to bake and brew, clean, milk, churn, wash and sew. Due to the scarcity of women in Virginia the girl servants usually married within the first three months. If their reputation was good, they often married into a higher station. _INDIAN SERVANTS_ The settlers at Chicacoan may have had some Indian servants. Tradition says that William Presley of Coan employed Indians to care for his "roaming stock." It was customary in Virginia to take Indian children as apprentices to learn a trade, and to learn to read and write. This was with the consent of the parents that the child should be instructed in the Christian religion. The children were usually taken at thirteen or fourteen years of age and the apprenticeships lasted until they were twenty-one.