Transcription.

RENMARK. 20th December 1889.

My Dear Wife,
No mail has left this town since we arrived and I was just in time to catch the northern train that goes to Morgan in time for the boat going up the Murray so I have had no opportunity of sending a message or writing.
Gibson, Henry and another man went to bathe in the evening id a kind of loop of the Murray; the water was not above twenty yards wide. Gibson could not swim; the three waded across and coming back they must have come where the water was a little deeper. Gibson was between Henry and the other man. Gibson suddenly went over the mouth in the water and still held on to other two.
Some how or other one pulled one way and the other in another way and thus Gibson was left clinging to Henry's shoulder. Henry struggled hard to reach the land, only a few yards away swimming with the one hand while Gibson held on to the other. They were so near the shore that they both drifted under an overhanging tree. Both made a clutch at the branches and both missed by a few inches. They were thus separated and Henry became exhausted; was going under water and so had to swim ashore. Gibson came to the surface and cried '0. Henry' but Henry was lying on the bank quite exhausted. The other man who could swim well got quite frantic and ran about shouting for help. In the meantime Gibson sank and by the time he was got out he must have been above half an hour in the water. By that time many of the people had gathered and a doctor. Everything was done to try and restore him but in vain. Had any one only been able to give Gibson a push for say six feet he would have been into shallow water. I went to look at the place and one could scarcely think a person could be drowned there while two persons were present who could swim. But the thing so took them by surprise that they had not their wits about them. Dear Anne is bearing up wonderfully. She and Henry are going to carryon the business.
I will write again when we get down no other mail leaves here. We will be on the way down the river on Sunday.

Your loving husband

David Badger.

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