Two quick questions. (And a bonus niefel jarl!)

[thejeff]

No way to find a specific commander. I use 'n' to cycle through those without orders, but if you're looking for that one mage with a particular random combination F1 (with renaming to mark the interesting ones) is probably the best way.

If you've got a lab in the hunting province, you can use Ctrl-Z. If you're using scouts to ferry slaves to labs, you're out of luck.