What is the “greeting” that Equiano receives when he first steps below the decks of the ship?

Horrible smell

Explanation:

It says in the text; 'I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a greeting in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life; so that, with the loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to taste anything'

and therefore he is welcomed with a foul stench