James Clouston

James Clouston from Stenness entered the Hudson Bay Company in 1808. He went out as a schoolteacher and taught at Eastmain Factory, on the shore of Hudson Bay, until 1811.

He became a trader and was keen to establish new posts in the interior. He explored the area between Lake Mistassini and Albanel and established new outposts at Lake Rush and Lake Nichicun.

His superiors agreed to his suggestion that the interior should be explored further and in 1820 he set off on the longest journey yet made by a European in the Labrador peninsula. He kept a journal of his trip, which is described as the work of a "trader of better education than most, with an eye for detail, a knowledge of the Indian language and a lively interest in the habits and beliefs of the Indians." The comprehensive map he drew in 1825 is described as technically crude but an "impressive tribute to one of the most under-rated of the Company's explorers".