I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a salutation [greeting] in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life: so that, with the loathsomeness [horribleness] of the stench and crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat. I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me; but soon, to my grief, two of the white men offered me eatables [food]; and on my refusing to eat, one of them held me fast by the hands, and laid me across I think the windlass [a part of the ship], and tied my feet, while the other flogged [whipped] me severely.
Background information: Olaudah Equiano was enslaved in Africa but eventually gained his freedom in the United States. These passages are excerpts from his autobiography, published in 1789.
What is the “greeting” that Equiano receives when he first steps below the decks of the ship?
He is offered food by a crewman.
He is immediately put to work.
He is met with a horrible smell.
He is surprised to find people crying.
