To wade it would be impossible; to attempt swimming it destruction. "The Lone Ranche" by Captain Mayne Reid

Then the giant fled and the knight after him, and so he drove him into a water, but the giant was so high that he might not wade after him. "Le Morte D'Arthur, Volume I (of II) King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table" by Thomas Malory

And look what it's got me into, Wade! "The Flirt" by Booth Tarkington