ABSTRACT
Macartney’s first leave from Kashgar was to bring about an important change in his life; he became engaged to a girl of nineteen, Catherine Borland, and they made plans to marry on his next leave. At first sight it seems strange that someone of Macartney’s shy and retiring nature should in so short a time have persuaded a young girl to marry him and to spend her life in a remote part of the Chinese empire. But Macartney was no stranger to the Borland family. They had given him a home during his holidays from Dulwich College from the time of his father’s return to England. Halliday Macartney and Catherine’s father, James Borland, had been friends from their schooldays in Scotland and they had never lost touch with each other. The Borlands’ house had given George Macartney his only real experience of family life since he had been parted from his mother and it was natural that he should find in James Borland’s second daughter his future wife. Catherine had never travelled abroad before but when Macartney’s leave was over she set about preparing herself for her future life in Kashgar with the practical common sense that was to enable her to cope with the many difficulties ahead. Although she was musical and had a fine voice she realized that Kashgar would demand more than drawing-room accomplishments, so she went into the kitchen and learned to cook. For her life in Sinkiang she had one great natural advantage, her personal courage. In crises of acute danger her children never saw her show signs of fear. Like the rest of her family she had a strong Presbyterian faith, and despite the difficulties, she maintained in Kashgar her own outpost of the Church of Scotland in which her children were brought up.
