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.
What happens when Equiano refuses to eat?
He gets very ill.
He is flogged.
He is forced to eat against his will.
He is persuaded by his last friend to give in.