In the late 1600s, Swann noticed that Barrettstown had grown into a swelling reservoir of mystical energy. Several of the village’s healthy women had turned towards witchcraft, and Swann followed in the steps of people like Cotton Mather and conducted his own Salem-inspired witch hunts. Many women were drowned as witches. In the late 1700s, Swann met a young aristocrat from Collinsport named Barnabas Collins. The two took an instant dislike to one another, and a minor altercation occurred between them.