At One With the Apes
Mildin described how he “gathered branches to make a crude treehouse.” He returned the favor to the ape family by making fire and even stealing weapons from a native settlement. “I found new and easy ways to root under logs for grubs and dig for roots with a sharp-tipped stick.” He also wrote about dressing their wounds with cool moss or wet mud.
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Mildin even bragged about himself in his memoirs, recalling how he was “unusually strong and agile for his age,” but there’s a major difference between Mildin and Tarzan: Mildin never claimed to became the leader of the animals (Tarzan was the king of the jungle). “The brutes came to look upon me, not as a leader for I could not match their feats of strength and endurance, but as a mute well-intentioned and helpful counselor,” an excerpt from his memoirs read.