for the registration of cargo, and the British softened their animosity against Abu Bakar. Abu Bakar's relationship with the ruler of Muar, Sultan Ali was strained. Soon after Abu Bakar succeeded his father, he sent a letter to Sultan Ali asserting Johor's sovereignty over Segamat, which Sultan Ali had hoped to exert political influence over. In addition, Sultan Ali, who had borrowed a large sum from an Indian moneylender in 1860, became a source of irritation for Abu Bakar. Facing difficulties in repaying his debt, Sultan Ali asked Abu Bakar to pay Ali's monthly pension to the moneylender; but he alternated asking for payment to himself and to the moneylender. In 1866, when the moneylender lodged a complaint with the British government, Sultan Ali tried to borrow from Abu Bakar to repay his outstanding debts. As a result of these constant irritations, Abu Bakar persuaded the Straits Governor to sign an agreement to terminate Sultan Ali's pension at the agreement of Abu Bakar and Governor. Abu Bakar made revisions to Johor's Islamic code in 1863, after the Sultan of Terengganu revised his state's Islamic judicial system to be more closely aligned with Sharia law. In a letter to the Straits Governor, Abu Bakar expressed hope that his revisions would suit more comfortably with European ideas. He founded an English school in Tanjung Puteri in 1864. Two years later, Abu Bakar moved the administrative headquarters to Tanjung Puteri, and officially renamed it as Johor Bahru. A new administration was set up, which was modelled after European styles and certain elements of a traditional Malay government. He recruited some of his close relatives and his classmates from the Teluk Blanga Malay school into the bureaucracy, and also set up an advisory council which included two Chinese leaders. In the early 1870s, Straits Governor Sir Harry Ord said of Abu Bakar (who became a Maharaja in 1868) that he was the "only Raja in the whole peninsula or adjoining states who rules in accordance with the practice of civilized nations." Years as Maharaja (1868–1885) During a state visit to England in 1866, Abu Bakar was commonly addressed as the "Maharaja" of Johor and led him to realise that the Malay title of Temenggong was hardly known to the Western World. He contemplated a change of another title, which led him to send his cousin, Ungku Haji Muhammad and the Dato Bentara, Dato Jaafar