The excellent example thus set by the good people of Boston was followed by other States and individual authorities along the coast. This system of local and arbitrary control was by no means satisfactory, so in 1789 the Federal Government took over the control of the lighthouse service, and entrusted its safe-keeping to the Secretary of the Treasury. There were only eight lights to watch when the cession was effected, but the growth of the country soon increased the duties of the department. Accordingly, a decree was passed in 1817 whereby the control was transferred from the Secretary of the Treasury to the fifth auditor of the same department, Mr. Stephen Pleasanton, who became known as the General Superintendent of Lights. He assumed the new office in 1820, taking over fifty-five lights, so that during the thirty years the aids to navigation had been under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Treasury forty-seven new stations had been established. The new official held the post for thirty-two years, and prosecuted his work so diligently and systematically that by 1852 the service had grown to 325 lighthouses, lightships, buoys, and other guides. The lighthouses were maintained under contract, the contractor for each light undertaking for a fixed annual sum to keep his charge in a perfect state of repair, to supply all illuminant, wicks, chimneys, and stores, that were required, as well as making one visit to the lighthouse in the course of the year. Subsequently it became necessary to award the contracts for terms of five years. [Illustration: THE CARQUINEZ STRAIT LIGHT. An imposing station on the north side of the entrance to the Strait.]