False Hopes

The Devil' Backbone, The Story of the Natchez Trace...(1962):

"He (Phineas Lyman) must have talked much in the tavern of his old wartime comrade, Israel Putnam, later to become a popular hero of the patriots in the American Revolution. 

*Source - Israel Putnam Drawing

At any rate, Israel and his brother Rufus were stirred by the 'false hopes' Phineas raised about the land. The Putnams left a journal* about their explorations (1772-73) but preferred to remain in New England. Lyman set out to establish his colony of Georgiana, named of course, after George III, but soon after his arrival at Natchez died, in 1774, leaving his wife and surviving children to continue his ill fortune."